White Sox 7, Blue Jays 6 (12 innings): Josh Harrison walks it off

White Sox win

Thanks to Josh Harrison’s two-out bloop single in the bottom of the 12th that mercifully drove in the elusive winning run, so many people can get on with their evenings.

José Abreu can rest easier after running 180 feet on two legs even though one of them stopped working after about 145.

Vince Velasquez can rest easier after holding the Blue Jays to one run in the 11th, and zero runs in the 12th. Had Harrison not come through, he would’ve been pitching the 13th, and probably beyond.

Tony La Russa can rest easier, with nobody second-guessing his decision to use Davis Martin in high leverage with the White Sox leading 2-1 in the eighth. With the combination of control lapses and terrible batted-ball luck, it’s like Aaron Bummer came off the injured list early, although Martin struggled with a huge zone 13 of 27 pitches for strikes).

Tim Anderson and Danny Mendick can rest easier, knowing their outs on the basepaths didn’t come back to cost them. Mendick got thrown out at home by 40 feet on a contact play in one of many ill-fated grounders to Matt Chapman with runners in scoring position, while Anderson was picked off by the second straight game. Anderson also grounded into a double play with the bases loaded in the 10th, ruining an even better chance to win two innings earlier than they did.

Seby Zavala can rest easier, not having to think about his strikeouts with runners in scoring position, or his throw to second on a stolen-base attempt that could best be described as a good piece of hitting, finding the hole on the vacated right side with a runner in motion.

Dylan Cease already could rest just fine after striking out 11 Jays over six innings of one-hit, no-run ball, but at least he knows that he contributed to a win instead of a loss.

Everybody in a White Sox uniform can rest easier knowing that Doug Eddings’ black hole of a strike zone didn’t cost them the game. Now we can all sit back and wait for the ump scorecard to put a number on the ludicrous inaccuracy.

Jordan Romero will not be sleeping well. The Toronto closer entered with a 4-2 lead in the ninth inning and erased a leadoff walk to Harrison with a double play off the bat of Mendick. Three chances to record the final out weren’t enough. Tim Anderson on four pitches, gave up a double to Andrew Vaughn, followed by a two-run single to Luis Robert that tied the game at 4.

Kendall Graveman gave up a first-pitch RBI double to score the Manfred Man in the 10th, but the Sox knotted it up with singles by Harrison and Mendick. Velasquez started his appearance with a balk, an HBP and an RBI single, but despite Cavan Biggio bunting a potential insurance run to third with two outs to play, Velasquez escaped with no further damage, getting a pair of groundouts to the left side over the course of three pitches. The Sox tied it up in the 11th with manufacturing because the inning opened with Adam Haseley facing a lefty. He bunted the runner over, and a Robert sac fly made it 6-6.

Robert then helped keep the game tied in the top of the 12th, as he followed up Engel’s fine running catch in right with a sliding catch in center that kept Vladimir Guerrero Jr. anchored at second base for two outs, followed by a more routine flyout to send it to the bottom of the inning. Siena College product Matt Gage also froze the Manfred Man through two outs, including Reese McGuire getting rung up on Eddings’ last worst call of the night. Harrison also fell behind 1-2, but the final pitch of the game was inner-half than off the inside corner, and Harrison got just enough of it to be everything the White Sox needed.

Bullet points:

*Cease racked up 20 swinging strikes over 101 pitches, including 18 over the course of 50 sliders. The only hit he allowed was an infield single.

*Jimmy Lambert pitched the seventh in the first of two higher-leverage auditions and gave up a solo shot to Alejandro Kirk.

*Robert drove in four runs from the third spot, while Engel reached base five times (an RBI double, two singles and two walks), along with two stolen bases.

*The White Sox locked in a winning record against the AL East’s top four teams this season. They’ll finish no worse than 13-12 against the Yankees, Blue Jays, Rays and Red Sox.

*Seriously, that strike zone was godawful.

Record: 33-33 | Box score | Statcast

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17 Comments
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MrStealYoBase

Glad they won. Now let us never speak of this game again.

Joliet Orange Sox

I enjoyed this game. I thought there were more than good moments than bad moments. Cease was terrific, the Sox had 15 hits including several with the game on the line, and there were some key good defensive plays by the Sox. It wasn’t perfect but I’m not trying to purge this game from my memory at all (and there have been many games this year I would like to forget).

Last edited 1 year ago by Joliet Orange Sox
a-t

multiple innings from vince velasquez in extras is more stress than i care for on a tuesday night

metasox

I am mentally preparing for some bullpen combinations I would rather not think about

a-t

can’t get worse than today… right?

metasox

It’s a long season

itaita

While hes had some shaky outings i feel more confident with Velasquez on the mound then guys like Ruiz , Foster or Tanner Crick (Those two feel like the same person to me). When Tony brought Ruiz in to try and close the 8th i thought the score was about to balloon to 7-2 or something.

a-t

would not have guessed that they locked in a winning record vs the al east’s relevant teams (with all due respect to the yet-unseen orioles)

since may 1, it’s been hard-fought, but they have a 25-21 record vs opponents w/ a weighted average winning % of 0.540 (not including those games vs the sox). that’s a standard wild card team’s strength, nothing to sneeze at. ignoring the SSS, that record implies a ‘true’ strength of .576, which translates to a 93 win team, a la last year’s.

the remaining schedule is really soft. there’s 10 games remaining vs the giants, astros, and padres, which leaves 95 games left vs either 1) crappy teams (a’s, mariners, rockies, dbacks) or 2) division rivals, half of whom are also crappy. they can bumslay their way to a division title still

gibby32

I recognize that one can interpret the numbers in various ways, but however you do it, I think it’s a mistake to characterize the schedule as “really soft”. The Guardians are playing their asses off and always have had very good pitching, and the Twins have a tough lineup. Baseball is hard. The White Sox are going to have to play balls to the wall, while overcoming a succession of injuries. The good news is that if they do so during the regular season, they may well be better prepared for the playoffs.

a-t

a couple weeks ago a graphic went around showing that they have the second-weakest strength of schedule remaining, and that was including these Astros and Jays series

gibby32

Yes, I know. I just don’t buy that crap.

soxygen

Whither Leury?

I don’t understand how they justify carrying him in the active roster at all if he isn’t available to come off the bench in a 12 inning affair.

gibby32

Where would you have used him?

As Cirensica

Wearing a Pirate’s uniform.

soxygen

Possibly as a pinch runner for an obviously hurting Abreu in either of the two instances in which Abreu was on base late?

Ultimately, that really isn’t my point. The point is that when a bench player who is struggling is not healthy enough to play for the last 4 games (and incidentally is not in the lineup for this afternoon’s game), then why keep him on the active roster? There has to be a better use of 1 of our 26 active roster spots than for an injured, redundant, struggling utility infielder.

Last edited 1 year ago by soxygen
FishSox

Adding to Eddings bad night, at least once you can clearly see Romano walking around the mound, off the rubber, shaking off pitch com pitches.

Hopefully this isn’t the only time this year that the Sox beat Toronto in a three game series in Chicago.