It turns out that a rookie might not be an automatic two-inning high-leverage unit all by himself.
After successfully holding a 4-2 lead with a 12-pitch 1-2-3 eighth, Grant Taylor lost the thread in the ninth as Will Venable attempted to ride him to his second consecutive six-out save. He loaded the bases by following a leadoff single with two straight four-pitch walks, and while he was able to limit Shohei Ohtani to a run-scoring fielder's choice, Steven Wilson couldn't stop the bleeding. A sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts tied the game, and after a walk to Will Smith in which a 2-2 fastball on the sliver of the outside corner didn't go Wilson's way, Freddie Freeman dropped a single into right field to send Dodger Stadium into its second frenzy of the evening.
The first frenzy was Clayton Kershaw's 3,000th strikeout, which he recorded by freezing Vinny Capra on his 100th and final pitch of the night to close out the sixth. But the White Sox made him work for it, and until the ninth inning, they were on course to saddle him with the loss.
After being handcuffed by Yoshinobu Yamamoto the night before, the White Sox offense had a much better handle on Kershaw's stuff. Austin Slater led the charge. He tripled in the first inning and scored on Andrew Benintendi's two-out single. Two innings later, he followed Chase Meidroth's single with a no-doubt blast on a full-count slider. His fourth career homer off Kershaw gave the Sox a 3-2 lead, and they didn't stop there. Andrew Benintendi reopened a rally with a one-out double, and then Edgar Quero cashed him in with an opposite-field single to give the Sox a two-run lead.
Kershaw and the Dodgers bullpen kept the Sox off the board the rest of the night, but thanks to Sean Burke, the support appeared to be sufficient.
Venable's opener strategy initially failed on both fronts, because Brandon Eisert gave up a solo shot to Smith in the first inning, and then Andy Pages sent Burke's first pitch of the evening in the second inning over the center field wall to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
But despite the rockiest of starts, that proved to be the only damage Burke allowed over his six innings, even though the Dodgers pressed him a couple of times as the game crossed the halfway point.
In the sixth, Burke plunked Smith and gave up a single to Freeman, but found footing with a deep flyout by Pages. And while Smith advanced to third on the play, he stayed there after Burke extinguished the threat with a pair of strikeouts.
An inning later, Lenyn Sosa fumbled a slow roller from Tommy Edman for a leadoff "single," and after Ohtani muscled a one-out single to put the tying runs aboard, Burke got Betts to fly out, then retired Smith on grounder to second that Sosa successfully handled.
While he wasn't the listed starter against Kershaw, he outpitched the guy who was effectively his counterpart. Kershaw needed three strikeouts for 3,000, but he only had one through four innings. He was able to get to the precipice by striking out Sosa on three pitches to close out the fifth, before locking up Capra to reach the milestone.
It was a strange swing of emotions, however. Michael A. Taylor preceded Capra with a double, and then tried to steal third on the first pitch of Capra's at-bat. The throw beat him and Max Muncy successfully applied the tag, but in doing so, Taylor's head hit Muncy's left knee and bent it in a direction it wasn't supposed to go. Both players left the game, but the White Sox said Taylor had a left trap contusion and is day-to-day. The Dodgers described Muncy's condition as "left knee pain," with the severity yet to be determined by an MRI. The somber mood lasted only three more pitches.
Bullet points:
*Taylor didn't have his triple-digit velocity in his second inning of work.
*Both teams' catchers reached base four times. Quero went 3-for-3 with a walk, while Smith had two singles, a walk and an HBP.
*Chase Meidroth stole his 11th base, and his second consecutive one where he should've been out. Will Klein had him picked off in the ninth inning, but Meidroth never broke stride, and Hyesong Kim missed him with the tag. The play held up after a review.
*The White Sox are now 5-21 in one-run games.
