Seranthony Domínguez hasn't been handed enough save opportunities (3-for-5) yet this season to map out the big trends, but it's safe to say that rather than the stabilizing back of the bullpen force the White Sox paid market value for, adventure remains on the menu when he enters.
Or maybe he was just continuing a trend.
For after Everson Pereira detonated on a hanging two-strike Kevin Kelly splitter to the put the Sox up 3-2 in the eighth, when Domínguez got the expected punishment for falling behind Junior Caminero 3-0 (game-tying home run, extremely slow trip around the bases, etc.), it was the third time on the afternoon the Sox scored a single run to go ahead, only to fail to hold it for even three outs.
Nah, that undersells it. Because after striking out Cedric Mullins, Domínguez--targeted for his wipeout stuff--got ahead 0-2, 0-2, 1-2 on his next three hitters and couldn't retire any of them, drilling Richie Palacios in the foot with a fastball to load the bases and depart to boos. Lucas Sims walking the bottom two hitters in the Rays order were the actual moments that pushed the decisive runs across, but sometimes the pitcher of record system gets it right.
"It’s been a couple of days off in the bullpen," said Edgar Quero of Domínguez. "It’s hard for him to come in in that situation after being off a couple of days. I think like guys like him need to throw like regularly."
Domínguez did not embrace that excuse.
"No, every time I come in, I just try to do my thing and unfortunately I didn't do my job today, but I have to do it next time," Domínguez said. "They just found a way to keep touching the ball every time, every single pitch I throw they just did a great job keeping alive."
The ninth marked an ugly end for what wound up resembling a glorified bullpen game. Returning stateside this past winter for the opportunity to prove himself as a major league starter, Anthony Kay hasn't come off as in love with the opener strategy in his first go-round, and Thursday's experience certainly didn't close the sale. The Rays didn't blink in response to Jordan Leasure as the opener, and stacked their lineup with righties. In turn, Will Venable felt enabled to bring his righty reliever out for a second inning of work, and Kay's "start" began with cleaning up after a one-out walk.
"They told me probably with like 10 minutes before the game that that was going to be the case, that I was going to get the sixth hitter in the lineup," Kay said. "It’s not really ideal. You kind of just have to adjust and kind of figure it out. My job is to get outs, regardless of what situation it is."
That could certainly qualify for a disruption to the starter routine, but the second also wound up being Kay's steadiest inning as he struggled to locate anything that wasn't a four-seamer. He needed 25 pitches to escape a bases loaded jam for a scoreless third, and a two-out, bases empty walk to Jonny DeLuca ballooned into a 36-pitch fourth that ended his day after recording eight outs, but not until after the No. 9 hitter Taylor Walls flipped a full count heater into left for a game-tying single.
Rather than open this time, Grant Taylor was reserved for the middle innings. As electric as he was in a scoreless sixth, a walk followed by Yandy Díaz scooping up an ankle-high slider for a one-out single set the Rays up tie things up in the seventh. Sean Newcomb entered and mostly vaporized every lefty he encountered across five outs of work, but the sole survivor was Palacios poking an 0-2 cutter off the plate for a soft flare that clanged off the edge of Miguel Vargas' leaping stab at third, knotting the game at 2.
That's about the margin for error White Sox pitching has been working with so far this season. And what offense Sox hitting could muster up to that point, they appended with a sense that they were lucky to get even that.
Vargas opened the scoring in the third after he challenged and successfully reversed a called strike three, before blasting a full count fastball to left for his second home run of the year; a solo shot. As much as the Sox wasted a bases loaded opportunity when pinch-hitter Tristan Peters chased a Griffin Jax curve in the dirt, the lone run they scratched across came because Chandler Simpson was playing so far in on Quero that he--arguably the fastest man in the sport--couldn't range back for the warning track drive in time to corral it. Somewhere in Granger, IN, Hawk Harrelson moaned "not over the fence!"as Quero's drive bounded into the bullpen, forcing Pereira to hold up at third, where he'd remain.
The moaning probably continued from there.
Bullet points:
*Quero got Kay back into a 2-0 count with the bases loaded against Díaz with back-to-back successful challenges, leading to an inning-ending popout. That was just the opening act to his full-count, bases loaded challenge on a Lucas Sims slider in the ninth that erased a go-ahead run off the board...for another minute or two.
*Jordan Hicks took a 103 mph Palacios comebacker off the cleat in the fifth, but stayed in to strike out Jake Fraley and end the inning scoreless.
*Pereira also walked and singled to put himself at .304/.360/.739 through all of 25 plate appearances. Every thing about his under the hood numbers are wackadoodle, in both good ways and bad. But since Munetaka Murakami struck out three times, Pereira is the new tiny fulcrum of offensive hope.
*Derek Hill and Tanner Murray combined for a baserunning blunder in the second. Hill over-rounded first after a two-out single and got caught in the rundown and Murray, after sliding into third, froze instead of racing home before Hill could be tagged out.
