The opponent changed and other small details varied, but the opener of the Cleveland series looked much like a continuation of the past three days in Seattle, where an early deficit preceded a stirring-but-unsuccessful rally. Also, a Naylor was involved.
This time, Aaron Civale was the one who got shelled, falling behind 5-0 in the first and 9-1 before Will Venable pulled the plug. He entered the game having allowed just one unearned run over his previous three starts covering 17 ⅓ innings, but the scoreless streak evaporated in no time, and he couldn't quite stop the bleeding, putting the Sox on course for their fifth consecutive loss.
Civale's evening peaked one batter in by striking out Steven Kwan. He then walked Daniel Schneemann ahead of José Ramírez, who blooped a double inside the left-field line, and that marked the start of a mix of bad execution and bad luck. The through line: misses up and out of the zone, which at least gave the Guardians a sense of the expected eye level.
"We were making a lot of competitive pitches, a ton of foul balls, a lot of weak contact throughout the day," Civale said. "Definitely made my share of errors, but felt like the balls found the ground when they got hit hard, and then when they didn't get hard they also found the ground. But, just one of those days."
Civale plunked Kyle Manzardo to load the bases, and then Carlos Santana pounded a chopper over the head of Curtis Mead at first base for a two-run single. He struck out Gabriel Arias to give him a chance of getting out of the first with minimal damage, but lost Bo Naylor to load the bases with a walk, after which C.J. Kayfus scalded a double to right field to clear them. Cleveland led 5-0, and then more of the same meant that Civale couldn't hold the line.
"Tough start," Will Venable said. "Between the combination of some unlucky bounces -- they found some holes with some soft contact -- the combination of that with a couple free passes there in the first inning, we weren't able to work around. And then obviously a big double by Kayfus there."
In the third, Manzardo led off with a pop-up behind third base. Brooks Baldwin started retreating behind shortstop, only for the wind to catch the ball and blow it toward the line, where nobody could get to. Manzardo ended up on second, and Santana drove him in by lining a cutter to right field (Mike Tauchman was able to to cut down Santana at second, for what it's worth.)
While Brooks Baldwin's solo shot off Tanner Bibee put the White Sox in the board in the bottom of the third, the Guardians swiftly answered. Kayfus opened the top of the fourth with a double, moved to third on a Brayan Rocchio single, and then scored on a bizarre balk. Rocchio moved to second and scored on a Schneemann single, and that marked the end of Civale's night.
"They put the ball in play, No. 1," Venable said of the Guardians. "Quality at-bats throughout the lineup. Every one of those guys is able to move the ball forward, and once they get on base, is able to cause havoc. That's kind of their team identity to have a 9-on-1 offense."
Mike Vasil allowed the inherited run to score, but otherwise, he and Wikelman González kept the Guardians off the board for the remainder of the game, giving the White Sox the faintest hope of getting back in it.
It flickered in the sixth, when the White Sox finally started stringing together successful plate appearances against Bibee. Corey Julks doubled, and after an Andrew Benintendi groundout, the Sox loaded the bases with walks to Jacob Amaya and Colson Montgomery.
Curtis Mead hit a grounder to the left side, and while Arias had hopes for a force at second, the ball skipped off his glove on his sliding backhand attempt and into left field for a two-runs single, making it a 9-3 game. Matt Festa then came in to relieve Bibee and got Kyle Teel to hit a grounder to the right side, where Brayan Rocchio fielded it and spun to throw to second. Arias probably didn't have any shot at getting Teel on a slow-developing play, and when Rocchio's throw came in low, he should've shifted to prioritizing the force like a first baseman. Instead, the ball skirted under his glove for a run-scoring error that made it 9-4, and Michael A. Taylor drew a walk to reload the bases for Brooks Baldwin.
Alas, Festa attacked Baldwin with one high cutter after another, and got him to pop out to Naylor. Tauchman followed and fell behind 0-2, but while he was able to lay off a cutter away, he wasn't able to keep his wrists from breaking on a cutter low. Third base umpire Andy Fletcher rung him up on the appeal, and while Tauchman slammed his helmet to earn his first career ejection, the replay showed the bat crossing the plate.
The White Sox weren't able to build a opportunity of a similar scale the rest of the night, settling for a single run in the seventh when Julks doubled and scored on a pair of groundouts.
Bullet points:
*Civale's last start against Cleveland was the one that went off the rails in the sixth after he failed to cover first base. Perhaps every start against his original team features one brain fart.
*Julks entered the game as a midgame replacement for Lenyn Sosa when the Sox were trailing 9-1. He doubled twice and scoring twice. Venable also replaced Luis Robert Jr. at the same time with Jacob Amaya, who went 1-for-2 with a walk and an RBI groundout, so he managed to get both rest and production.
*The Guardians were 6-for-11 with runners in scoring position. The Sox were 1-for-14.
