Tyler Alexander has pitched in two games for the White Sox, and each of them as an insane story.
His White Sox debut came immediately after an Uber ride from Milwaukee to Chicago, and he took the mound for the final three innings last Sunday without knowing the large majority of his teammates.
Today, he took the mound as the last reliever Will Venable wanted to use with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, then ended up having to hit for himself with two outs and the go-ahead run on second in the top of the 10th because the Sox ran out of position players. There was no Matt Albers moment, but at least he put the ball in play, grounding out to first to end the inning.
"That was interesting," Alexander said. "I expected to pitch at some point. I didn’t expect to hit. It’s funny, I got in and they said, ‘Hey, you’re up fourth.’ Of course, somebody got on so I got to hit. Just always fun, but just upsetting the way it ended."
He then had to return to the mound to pitch. He struck out Corey Seager with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th, but he didn't have such luck in the bottom of the 11th, as Adolís García's scalded line drive one-hopped the center field wall to bring a grueling game for both teams to a merciful end.
Alexander did all he could, just as Venable did all he could. Once Venable pinch-ran for Edgar Quero, he lost the DH. Once Andrew Benintendi departed with a wrist or hand issue after a pair of pained swings--Benintendi said he was fine postgame, and Venable pointed out that he wanted to push the pitcher spot as far off as possible--his bench was reduced even further. Once he pinch-hit Michael A. Taylor for Ryan Noda in the ninth, he used up his final position player because Vinny Capra was needed to round out the infield defense.
"We went toe-to-toe with a really good ball club for 11 innings because we were able to use all our players, so absolutely," said Venable, when asked if he would make all the same moves again.
And it almost worked. Baldwin made it to second on a grounder and needed all of his speed to score on Mike Tauchman's single to tie the game at 3 in the eighth, and Taylor's two-out double got the game to extras in the first place.
When Alexander came to the plate in the 10th with two out and two on after Chase Meidroth went too far on a pitch in the dirt, Venable got to the proverbial bridge he'd have to cross, and he couldn't quite do it.
All in all, it was a creative new way for the White Sox to fall to 4-18 in one-run games.
"We fought all the way through," Benintendi said. "Tyler Alexander did a hell of a job. It took everybody on the bench and then some. It's a loss, but deep down it kind of feels like it isn't. Get 'em tomorrow."
The White Sox could have lost this one earlier and more peacefully, and on a couple of occasions. In the seventh, Grant Taylor gave up his first two runs as a reliever. He struggled to throw competitive breaking pitches, and the Rangers came through with three hits against fastballs and cutters to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead, with Corey Seager scoring the go-ahead run with some great anticipatory baserunning on a two-strike curveball in the dirt, but Tauchman's single tied it up in the top of the eighth.
In the bottom of that inning, Chase Meidroth rushed a throw on Wyatt Langford's two-out chopper to short. It sailed high and away from Ryan Noda, allowing Josh Smith to score from second to take a 4-3 lead.
The White Sox had an answer for that one, too. Teel singled with one out against righty Luke Jackson, and after Luis Robert Jr. was called out on strikes, Noda came to the plate. Considering he was playing his first game for the White Sox and his first MLB game of 2025, Bruce Bochy might've overthought it by calling for lefty Robert Garcia. Venable answered with his last righty in Michael A. Taylor, who struck out against Garcia to end Friday's game, and Taylor redeemed himself by splitting the left-center gap to thwart the move and tie the game at 4.
"He’s a veteran guy with a lot of experience," Teel said of Taylor. "One of the guys I listen to and learn from every day. Every time he’s up there I have full confidence in it and he took a great swing."
It was quite a journey to the predictable destination of losing a bullpen game against one of baseball's best pitchers, Jacob deGrom. Mike Vasil continued his brand of unimpressive, effective pitching with four shutout innings, although he walked four batters while doing it.
"Got the outs when it mattered most," Vasil said. "The cliché is that you're always one pitch away. Clichés are clichés because they're true a lot of the time."
He departed with the lead thanks to a sequence of effective plate appearances against deGrom, who was his typical self through three innings. Meidroth opened the fourth with a single, moved to third on Miguel Vargas' one-out double, and scored on Kyle Teel's sac fly for the game's first run. Robert then lined a single to center for a second run before deGrom could stop the bleeding.
But when Brandon Eisert, who has been one of Venable's most trusted high-leverage relievers, entered in the fifth, it showed how far away the ninth inning was. Little did everybody know they'd have to account for two innings beyond it.
Bullet points:
*Venable looked as close as he ever has to being emotionally spent after a tough loss, and said he addressed the team extremely briefly afterward.
"It was probably 10 seconds and told them how proud I was," Venable said. "The feeling that we feel after this game is one that we can feel. You don’t need to turn the page on this one. We can sit in this one and that’s a good thing because we expect to win. This club expects to win. They showed that today to be able to face one of the best pitchers on the planet and go toe-to-toe with these guys, I can’t say enough. Just so proud of them. "
*Venable avoided making the same mistake Tony La Russa made in 2021 when he used Chase Meidroth as the Manfred Man to open the 11th inning at second base, even though Alexander made the final out of the 10th. There was no Liam Hendriks Incident here.
"Credit our staff for knowing the rules," Venable said.
*John Schriffen and Gordon Beckham did a poor job of informing viewers over the final few innings. They missed the White Sox losing the DH until Alexander appeared in the on-deck circle, they weren't aware of the rule that allowed Meidroth to run in Alexander's place, and they didn't do a great job of anticipating intentional walks with open bases.
*Baldwin committed an error at second base immediately after Alexander entered the game in the eighth, getting eaten up by a Seager grounder, but it didn't result in a run.
*The White Sox were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight, which was effectively a half-serving of the Rangers' performance (4-for-23, 17 stranded).
