The schedule makers knew what they were doing.
As gassed as the White Sox might've been after 13 consecutive games, it allowed this series in Philadelphia to be bookended by off days, and after the Sox ended up on the wrong side of a three-game slugfest by a combined score of 20-17, Monday's breather will be most welcome.
The finale looked a lot like the first game of this series with their lefty relievers struggling against lefty hitters, except Tyler Gilbert faltered as the opener before Bryan Hudson was once again roughed up in a key late-inning situation. The White Sox offense made a game of it, but thanks to the steady stream of Phillies runs, Will Venable had to go through all of his moves early, and he would've needed twice as many bench players to supply the needed offense.
The game took the fateful turn in the middle innings, and with two of Venable's more trusted middle-innings options on the mound. The White Sox had just taken a 5-4 lead on Aaron Nola in the top of the fifth, and Venable went to Tyler Davis instead of trying to get another inning out of David Sandlin.
Davis had turned in nine scoreless outings out of his last 11 appearances, but this wasn't one of them. He allowed the first four hitters to reach, including an Alec Bohm RBI double that tied the game at 5, and a Bryson Stott single that put the Phillies ahead 6-5. Matters could've been worse because Tristan Peters overthrew the cutoff man to theoretically take the double play out of it, except a drawn-in Colson Montgomery stopped Justin Crawford's firm grounder, and while he couldn't recover in time to get the out at home for a third Philly run, he was able to start a 3-6-5 double play to spare Davis even further damage.
After a pinch-hitting Edgar Quero missed by a matter of feet on a game-tying double and a go-ahead homer in the top of the sixth, the Phillies effectively put the game away against Hudson in the bottom of the inning. Hudson had an inside track to a scoreless inning after retiring two of the first three batters and getting to two strikes on both Bryce Harper and Brandon Marsh, but the former walked on a challenged full-count fastball, and the latter slashed a single to left that made it an 8-5 game. Alec Bohm then escorted Hudson out of the game with a single that made it no longer a save situation, and Trevor Richards was required to finish the inning, and eventually the game.
It was a quiet end to what had been an inspiring performance by a White Sox offense that had to keep counterpunching.
When the Phillies took a 1-0 lead off Gilbert with a couple of doubles that cleared Sam Antonacci in left and Rikuu Nishida in right, both outfielders helped flip the margin in the top of the second. The Sox posted runners on second and third with nobody out after a Jacob Gonzalez walk and a Peters double, and both runners scored. Gonzalez took a straightforward route home on a Drew Romo sac fly, while Peters made it to third on a broken-bat Nishida infield single, then home on an Antonacci single for a 2-1 lead.
When Rafael Marchán put the Phillies back on top with a two-run shot off Sandlin in the bottom of the second, Peters rattled a double off the top of the right field wall to score Chase Meidroth to tie the game at 3.
When Marsh took Sandlin deep to start the bottom of the third to give Philadelphia a 4-3 lead, Randal Grichuk came off the bench in the top of the fifth to deliver a pinch-hit two-run single off Tim Mayza to put the White Sox back in front.
Unfortunately, the White Sox needed a lot more, and they ended up on the wrong end of some close calls. Going back to the second inning, Miguel Vargas took a 3-0 pitch off the plate that should've been a bases-loading walk, but home plate umpire Alex MacKay called it a strike, Vargas didn't challenge, and then flied out. Likewise, Andrew Benintendi took a Nola changeup below the zone to fall behind 0-1, then grounded out on a curve to end the threat.
A wind coming in from left field kept their two deepest drives in the park. Peters was deprived a two-run homer and had to settle for an RBI double, and Quero's backspin-laden fly nearly floated out of the park, even though it only registered an exit velocity of 89.9 mph. Venable almost got five RBIs out of two pinch-hitters, and two of his better relievers gave up the final five runs, so he did what he could from a managerial perspective.
Bullet points:
*Sandlin ended with a line that could've been worse: 3.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 2 HR. The strikeouts helped mitigate the damage from the homers.
*Peters made two nice catches right of center to allow Trevor Richards to record the final two outs on the White Sox's side of things, including a full-stride grab to deprive Marsh of a hit he didn't need.
*Richards has recorded the game finished in each of his last six appearances, posting a shutout over that stretch: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K,
*Marsh went 5-for-12 with three homers, a double and a walk for the series.
*Antonacci took a 100-mph Jose Alvarado fastball off his elbow for his fourth consecutive game with an HBP, but this one looked like it hurt.
*Antonacci owns the second-longest HBP streak in White Sox history. Carlos Quentin was hit by a pitch in six straight games back in 2008.
