Normally Sox Machine tries to offer a sober-minded oasis in a sea of reactive hot takes. But it's a Friday night at the end of a long week, a White Sox franchise that has lost 100+ games in each of the last three years has played three-straight games against the two best teams in baseball and won them all, and just used a seven-run fifth inning to rout the two-time defending World Series champs in front of a capacity home crowd.
So by all means, crack one open or light one up if you have a mind to, because this is the type of performance that lends all the suffering a sense of purpose.
"The umpires and everyone around is talking about how many people we are getting," said Miguel Vargas, one of many reflecting on the joyous atmosphere. "The umpire, he come up to me and said, ‘Oh, this is how it used to be every day.’ When you hear this type of stuff, it’s so important for us and we take pride for that."
A generic gameplan against Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki would probably emphasize wariness of his devastating splitter, and hunt his vulnerable four-seamer; an approach exemplified by Andrew Benintendi launching a grooved 3-1 fastball for a first inning solo shot to stake Anthony Kay to a brief 1-0 lead.
As a counter, Sasaki kept Sox hitters off balance with his slider for...well, it's easier to pinpoint when it ended. He couldn't locate it enough to stave off a five-pitch walk to Tristan Peters to open the fifth, and when actually good splitters couldn't secure outs--A Drew Romo bloop single to left, Sam Antonacci's medium speed getting under Freddie Freeman's glove for a game-thing knock--Sasaki's margin of error was removed and the ceiling caved in on him in response.
Midway through a three-hit night, Vargas stayed with a slider on the outer edge that he had seen three times already in his previous two at-bats and lifted a deep fly off the right field wall. The trajectory and exit velocity clearly had Vargas thinking three-run homer, but late scamper still made it a go-ahead RBI double, and the three splitters Sasaki threw to strike out Benintendi would be his last viable pitches of the night. Eight-straight balls to the Montgomerii loaded the bases and pushed the third run of the frame across, prompting Dave Roberts to call for Blake Treinen, who happened to jog in from right with a full tank of gasoline to put on the fire.
Blaming Treinen might be fun, but it wouldn't quite be fair. Chase Meidroth fought off a sinker on his hands for a soft two-run single to right-center, his third hit of the night. After Jacob Gonzalez popped out, Peters fouled off six pitches before lining a two-run triple to the right-center gap at the end of an eight-pitch battle that effectively won the war.
"Talked about it on the bench, one of the best at-bats of the year," said Will Venable. "Certainly one of the best at-bats from him of the year where he fouled a bunch of balls off, and not just fouling them off, with conviction, getting the barrel there. We saw it in the next at-bat after that as well, where they’re pitching him in, he’s getting a barrel there. They’re pitching him away, he’s also able to get the barrel there. So, really impressive stuff."
When Bryan Hudson came to deliver an easy 1-2-3 sixth against the Kyle Tucker-Miguel Rojas-Max Muncy pocket of the Dodgers order, Roberts began planning for Saturday. He subbed out Freeman and Mookie Betts, and watched as typical mopup men Trevor Richards and Chris Murphy brought home Kay's sixth victory.
Kay's night was more tumultuous that seven strikeouts in five innings might indicate, but was deserving of the win for no clearer reason than he weathered his own crisis inning and stayed on his feet when the Dodgers had a chance to land a knockout blow.
"He's been a dog all year and he's going to keep fighting, fighting for us," Meidroth said. "I love seeing that, limiting the damage. We talk always about limiting the damage, scoring runs when we've got runners on. That's how you win baseball games."
Tucker led off the second with a seven-pitch walk, which turned into a jam when Rojas tucked his hands in to flick 98 mph on his hands down the left field line for a double. Just at it seemed like Kay had Muncy off balance with his breaking stuff, a sinker ran in on his shoulder to load the bases with no one out. When Santiago Espinal flicked a first-pitch slider to left for a two-run single, the Dodgers had two runs in already with the top of the order nearing.
Maybe it warmed some hearts on this website to see the rally dissipate after a bunt. Called up earlier on Friday as an injury replacement, old friend Chuckie Robinson did his job in laying down a sacrifice, but Kay benefitted from the extra nudge toward an escape, even after hitting Alex Call to re-load the bases. Two sharp iterations of his new slider tied up Andy Pages for a strikeout, before Freeman flied out softly on a knee-high sinker to stop the bleeding.
"My stuff was good all night," Kay said. "The two 1-2 hit-by-pitches and the leadoff walk is what kind of got me in trouble. When I was in the zone, it was good all night."
As a result, this goes down as the Sox' 18th comeback win of the season.
Bullet points:
*Antonacci struggled to pick up Rojas' double off the warning track, and slipped and fell while retrieving Espinal's subsequent single in the second. Neither had any effect beyond reminding that he's playing a new position.
He also stole second in the eighth while the Sox were already up six runs, which is just a reminder that he's Sam Antonacci.
*Meidroth extended his on-base streak to 22 games, and his hitting streak to 12 games with a second inning single. He also caught the final out off a weird whiff from Gonzalez along the first base line that delayed the reaction to the end of the game.
*Montgomery wasn't the picture of physical comfort in his return to the lineup, going 0-for-4 with a walk and whiffing on a hard shot to the hole that he usually is long enough to knock down. But he did race home from second on Meidroth's single in the fifth.
"Being mindful of where he’s at physically, I thought even though he didn’t get any hits, he took some good swings, he looked like himself," Venable said. "Didn’t think that he got limited in any way by his back. So I expect, at least hope, that he is able to recover today and his back is still in a good spot.”
*Announced attendance was 37,882, a sellout.
"I can't say enough about the fans," Meidroth said. "These fans are unbelievable. They make this fun, showing up every day. Keep coming because it's awesome. We love it, we love our fans and this is amazing."
