The White Sox's success this season has been home-heavy, but they looked primed to take their act on the road when Andrew Benintendi homered off Gerrit Cole in the first inning for a quick 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately, it ended with Luisangel Acuña on the mound, giving up a homer to make it an even 10-run defeat, which is tied for the second-worst loss of the season.
Davis Martin took it on the chin, giving up nine runs on eight hits -- including three homers -- and three walks over 3 ⅓ innings. That sent his ERA soaring from 2.41 to 3.31, which is fine on the whole if this was merely a painful case of simple regression. That he's given up 15 runs over 14 innings in June is a little more concerning.
The game was tied at 1 through two on an exchange of solo shots, but the unraveling started in the third with a half-swing from eighth-hitting catcher J.C. Escarra, which guided a grounder down a wide open third base line for a leadoff double. Then a normal swing from Anthony Volpe resulted in a routine grounder to Chase Meidroth, except that Jacob Gonzalez thought it was a routine single to right field. He started staking out a position in the infield grass to cut a throw home, not realizing that Meidroth needed somebody standing at first. Volpe reached on an infield "single," and that truly set the disaster into slow motion.
Martin thought he'd struck out Ben Rice on a 1-2 slider, but a challenge determined it was off the plate. Martin missed on the next two pitches for a bases-loading walk, and then Cody Bellinger lined a single to right to start the flow of runs. Martin appeared to find some footing by striking out Paul Goldschmidt for the first out, but Jazz Chisholm teased a walk from behind 1-2 to reload the bases, and then he walked Spencer Jones on six pitches for a 4-1 game. A sac fly by José Caballero made it 5-1 before Martin brought the inning to an end on a 4-3 groundout where Gonzalez knew where to stand.
Martin threw a season single-inning high of 40 pitches in the third, which made it surprising that Will Venable let him throw 17 more ineffective pitches in the fourth, the inning that truly buried the Sox. He gave up a leadoff single to Escarra, and then two batters later hung a curve to Rice that hit the facing of the second deck in right field for a two-run shot. Bellinger then dropped a single to center before Goldschmidt hammered a 1-2 fastball out to right for a second two-run shot that made it 9-1, and that's when Venable pulled the plug.
Chris Murphy wasn't the answer, as he needed 27 pitches to record the final two outs of the fourth, thanks in part to his two-out throwing error on a swinging bunt, but when Joe Rock took over for a fresh inning and proceeded to hold the Yankees scoreless over three full frames to get the game to Acuña, it seemed like Martin's night could have ended sooner.
As for Cole, he gave up the solo shot to Benintendi, then didn't deal with another baserunner until Tristan Peters' single past Rice in the sixth. He threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of 23 batters he faced, and five of his 16 called strikes were out of the zone, but in counts or situations where the White Sox didn't feel comfortable challenging.
The Sox at least made him sweat on the way out. Drew Romo flied out after the Peters single, but Sam Antonacci drew a five-pitch walk. Everson Pereira hit a bouncer to the left side that only resulted in a force at second, with Antonacci contesting Chisholm's turn by running through the bag, even if that wasn't the reason the throw was late.
Benintendi then walked to load the bases, and Acuña's bouncer to the left side was too soft for Ryan McMahon to get him at first despite a fine effort. That scored the second and final run, and gave the eventual pitcher an RBI on his line.
Bullet points:
*Ryan Yarbrough handled the remainder of the game for the Yankees and came away with a three-inning save for protecting a 10-run lead.
*The White Sox hadn't lost by 10 runs since a 10-0 loss to Miami on April 1. Their biggest loss of the season is still the 14-2 Opening Day loss to the Brewers.
*The White Sox were outhit 16-4, outwalked 6-2, and out-chanced with runners in scoring position 12-3.
*Venable lifted Benintendi, Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery midgame, probably for a half-game of rest until stated otherwise.
*Acuna threw one pitch at 65.2 mph, and the rest were eephuses/knucklers between 37 and 44 mph.
*The Guardians lost in Milwaukee to keep the division standings static, even if their 2-1 final score had a different feel.
