In his first trip to the plate after an unprofessional display in the outfield and a demotion in the batting order, Luis Robert Jr. blistered Yusei Kikuchi fastball off the right-field wall at 100.2 mph, only to be tagged out at second after sliding past the oversized bag.
So it goes for the White Sox, who were shut out for the second consecutive game to seal their second consecutive sweep and their seventh consecutive loss. They were outscored 20-2 over the three games, and failed to post a run in 26 of 27 innings, including the most recent 21.
There's probably something instructive about Michael Kopech's outing against a deep offense. He had the good fastball velocity and enough action to get eight whiffs on it, but his slider wasn't potent, allowing the Blue Jays to fight off pitches until Kopech made a mistake.
But Kopech could've limited the damage to one run over eight innings, and he still would've taken the loss just the same. The White Sox offense tallied only three other singles and one walk over the remaining eight innings while striking out a whopping 17 times. Blue Jays pitching retired the last 11 batters that came to the plate, and 10 by K.
Each of the 10 White Sox who came to the plate struck out at least once, and Robert and Eloy Jiménez led the way with silver sombreros. The Blue Jays had more hits with runners in scoring position (five) than the White Sox had at-bats (four).
Bullet points:
*Right fielder du jour Romy González hit a doink single to raise his line to .129/.129/.129, but he also failed to come up cleanly on two plays where he had a chance to cut down a runner. At least Robert allowed González to call him off.
*MLB.com's video package includes zero White Sox highlights.
