The way Bryse Wilson's afternoon immediately went south suggests that he would've benefited from the opener strategy that Jonathan Cannon successfully rode on Tuesday.
"It was considered," Will Venable said. "It would have put us in a tough spot, to lock in one of the guys that we did have available up front. That was part of the calculus there is we just weren't in a spot with our bullpen to do it."
The way the White Sox offense failed to deliver any kind of meaningful counterattack suggests using more pitchers than necessary would've been a waste.
The first three batters Wilson at Great American Ballpark loaded the bases, and all three runners scored on a sac fly and a two-out Will Benson single to put the White Sox in an immediate 3-0 hole.
"Second start in a row walking the first guy on four pitches, which is unacceptable," Wilson said. "Physically, I felt good. It was just very bad execution."
Meanwhile, Nick Martinez retired the first 13 batters he faced en route to seven scoreless innings. Matt Thaiss broke up the perfect game with a one-out single in the fourth, Miguel Vargas notched a two-out single in the sixth, and those were the only two blemishes on Martinez's line.
The combination meant that any dreams of the White Sox's first sweep of 2025 were short-lived, and they had to settle for the consolation prize of a second consecutive series victory instead.
Martinez only generated four whiffs on 96 pitches, but he induced an array of ordinary-looking outs, with the hardest contact staying on the ground. He generally had the count in his favor, only falling behind 2-0 to three of 23 batters, which allowed him to mix in all of his pitches while wending his way through the White Sox order three times.
"He pounded the zone and his changeup was really, really good today," said Thaiss. "That's what I saw from the left side of the plate. It's a very slow, big changeup with a lot of movement, a lot of depth and just kind of kept a lot of our guys off balance."
The hardest contact off Wilson, meanwhile, ended up in the air, and often at optimal launch angles. He gave up the four hardest-hit balls in the game, and all four went for extra bases, including solo shots by Elly De La Cruz, Benson and Matt McLain. They were all spread out over different innings, as the second inning was the only one of six innings in which Wilson kept Cincinnati off the board.
If you wanted to spin Wilson's afternoon in the most optimistic fashion, you could say that he forced the Reds to hit their way on, as his four-pitch pass to Gavin Lux to open the game was his only walk issued. The relative efficiency with which Wilson was roughed up allowed him to complete 5⅓ innings, which allowed Will Venable to use as many relievers as he cared to. Jared Shuster probably could have finished the remaining 2 ⅔ innings himself, but Venable used the eighth to look at new reliever Yoendrys Gómez. Like Wilson, Gómez also walked the first batter he faced, but Vargas and Lenyn Sosa combined to turn a well-executed 5-4-3 double play to erase it one batter later, and Gómez struck out Austin Wynns to complete a scoreless inning.
If you also wanted to give the silver lining treatment to the White Sox offense, it at least managed to spoil the Reds' shutout bid in the eighth, when Vargas cashed in Joshua Palacios' one-out double with a two-out single that dropped in front of Connoe Joe in right. That completed a nice day for Vargas, who logged the White Sox's only multi-hit game in his return to the leadoff spot, and had another line drive caught on the left-field warning track.
Bullet points:
*Luis Robert Jr. made a fine running catch at the wall in right center to take extra bases away from McLain in the second, but his well-timed attempt to steal Benson's homer appeared to be thwarted by the railing over the wall. The ball glanced off Robert's glove, hit the stands, then bounced back onto the field, and Robert looked crestfallen to return it to the fans.
"He looked like he had it and just got away from him there," Venable said. "He's really good around the wall and usually makes those plays. But it's an exceptional play and would have been awesome. But he gave it everything he had."
*Venable explored a different defensive arrangement with his late-game substitutions. The game ended up with Tim Elko at first, Lenyn Sosa at second, Josh Rojas in left, and Brooks Baldwin in center.
*Wilson committed his third error of the season -- a lot for a pitcher in May -- with an errant pickoff throw in the third inning, but he stranded Spencer Steer on third with a pair of strikeouts.
*Benson reached base three times, drove in three runs, and closed out the game with a fine running catch on Thaiss' deep drive to center, so he certainly made his mark over the series.
*The White Sox claimed infielder Vinny Capra off waivers from bench coach Walker McKinven's old team shortly before the final out. Capra is out of options, so the Sox have no reason to claim him if they're not going to add him to the active roster, and Venable's description of his role would serve to explain why Jacob Amaya was still sitting at his locker in full uniform a half hour after the game's completion.
"He can play shortstop," Venable said. "I like the bat, so can be somebody we’ll get in there and mix him around different spots in the infield. We’ll throw him in the mix. Really like [him] defensively. He gives us an opportunity to move Chase [Meidroth] around, to give Chase days [off]. He's going to support the middle infield."
