When The Andy Hawkins Game is a peer, you know you the White Sox just did something special.
The White Sox and Tigers combined for three runs over 10 innings, all three runs scored on wild pitches, and the last was one to behold.
Jake Burger had just taken a Jose Cisneros pitch off the wrist to load the bases with two outs, and the trip to first was delayed by a review since home plate umpire Cory Blaser initially ruled the ball hit the knob of Burger's bat.
Up came Tim Anderson, but he was irrelevant to the proceedings.
One pitch later, Blaser was on the ground, Yoán Moncada crossed the plate, and the White Sox had to balance celebrating the most unusual walk-off victory with making sure Blaser was OK.
Eric Haase set up low and away, but Cisneros ran a fastball high. Haase whiffed, resulting in Blaser taking a baseball traveling 96.4 mph directly to the mask. Blaser fell back to the ground, and once Haase saw that retrieving the baseball was pointless, he tended to the slumped ump he just hung out to dry.
As a result, the White Sox won a game in which they scored multiple runs without batting one in since Andy Hawkins' eight-inning no-hitter at Comiskey Park in 1990.
Assuming Blaser's discomfort was only temporary, it was pretty much the perfect way to end a game featuring two inept offenses.
The White Sox fared both better and worse than they did against Michael Lorenzen compared to a week ago. He took a perfect game bid into the sixth last Saturday, whereas Anderson greeted him with a hit to start the game, but they still managed just two hits and zero walks over seven innings, compared to two hits over 6⅔ innings the previous encounter. Lorenzen needed just 85 pitches.
Andrew Benintendi had the other one of those hits to lead off the fourth, and he didn't need another hit to make his way around the bases. He stole second on a strike three, advanced to third on #wildpitchoffense, then scored on #WILDPITCHOFFENSE for the game's first run.
Alas, the Sox got a taste of their own medicine in the sixth. Zach McKinstry led off with a triple to the base of the wall in right center, and while the Sox drew in their infield, that didn't matter, because a Dylan Cease slider clipped Grandal's mitt and bounded to the backstop to tie the game at 1.
Grandal had a chance to atone for that run in the 10th when he came to the plate after Romy González bunted Moncada to third, but after a lengthy battle, he bounced the 11th pitch he saw into the shift to freeze Moncada at third. The Tigers then intentionally walked Gavin Sheets, which preceded the painful last two plate appearances.
Reynaldo López picked up the win for his work in the top of the 10th. He walked Nick Maton to start the inning, but recovered with a shallow flyout, a popout, and a routine 5-3 to keep the Tigers from advancing, much less scoring.
López's walk was the only one issued by the White Sox bullpen over 4⅔ innings, and it had a strategic component to it. Otherwise, he, Kendall Graveman, Gregory Santos, Liam Hendriks, and Keenyn Middleton allowed just one hit while striking out five, including Hendriks' first of the season.
The only problem with Cease's afternoon was deep counts, and partially because his control was a little off, and partially because he had his swing-and-miss stuff back. He issued three walks, but he also racked up 23 whiffs on 99 pitches. It was the familiar form of Cease before he leveled up to runner-up in the Cy Young race -- the guy who's as hard to catch as he is to hit.
After Mike Clevinger spearheaded a shutout the day before, you can question whether it's more a product of the Tigers offense than anything Cease did, but that won't be answered until next week at the earliest.
Bullet points:
*Elvis Andrus went 0-for-2 in his return from the oblique before Jake Burger pinch-hit for him in the eighth.
*González contributed off the bench, stealing a base after pinch-running for Andrew Vaughn in the eighth inning, then executing the bunt in the 10th.
*The White Sox once again looked helpless against Alex Lange's curveball during a scoreless ninth.
