As the pregame notes teased, two White Sox pitching trends entered Sunday's rubber match north of the border:
- Sean Burke dominating over his last five starts (32 IP, 1.69 ERA, 42 K, 5 BB)
- Baffling home (3.18 ERA) and road (5.05 ERA) splits for Sox pitching
Only one would be allowed to survive, and despite not quite having the ultimate domineering fastball at the top of the strike zone that's powered some his best recent work, a craftier version of Burke collected 6 2/3 scoreless innings worth of off-balance swings at sliders and curves kept in the lower third of the zone.
Burke only struck out five, but the steady precession of empty Toronto offensive innings suggested a greater mastery than the box score. A successful Drew Romo challenge on a low and away curveball to Jonatan Clase clinched a perfect first turn through the order, and a fourth inning Nathan Lukes infield single was the only baserunner the Blue Jays managed through five innings. At first he would stay, because Burke didn't allow a runner to reach second all day.
A two-out walk to Ernie Clement before Lukes ripped a slider for a lineout to right to end the sixth had Will Venable ready with Bryan Hudson for the seventh. But Burke did his bullpen the favor of blowing away Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with a high fastball before pantsing Kazuma Okamoto with a slider, giving way to Hudson only after a two-out single to Daulton Varsho.
Meanwhile, it looked as though Burke was outgunned during the first turn through the order, even as he was setting down Jays hitters in order. Looking more like the guy who dominated the Dodgers in the World Series last October than a rookie who walked seven his last time out, Blue Jays starter Trey Yesavage's high slot four-seam/splitter combo baffled Sox hitters at first glance, and he collected six of his nine strikeouts in the first three of his six innings.
But leave it to Colson Montgomery to demonstrate the concept of the times through the order penalty in real time. In the second, he flailed at and struck out on a splitter off the edge. In the fourth, after a Munetaka Murakami leadoff walk and a Miguel Vargas fielder's choice, Colson Montgomery stayed back on another low and away splitter just enough to whip a hard grounder that deflected off Sean Keys' glove at first to put runners on the corners. Andrew Benintendi lifted a sacrifice fly to cash in the manufacturing opportunity the Sox repeatedly spurned on Saturday to stake Burke to a 1-0 lead, but Colson Montgomery wasn't done demonstrating.
With Yesavage an out away from sealing up six innings of one-run ball, Montgomery got his third outside splitter of the afternoon and showed it the most scorn, dipping his hips and driving a solo shot into the right field bullpen. While the Sox didn't have many convincing swings off Yesavage, they packed them in late. Benintendi followed by lashing a high-and-away heater to left for a two-out double, before Braden Montgomery put together one of the most resilient at-bats of his young career.
After swinging through a pair of high heaters to fall behind 0-2, Montgomery fouled one off over the zone, before taking a close one on his hands, fouling off two more heaters, spoiling a well-located splitter, and pouncing on a mistake location in the eight-pitch battle. His hard two-out RBI single up the middle probably didn't require getting hung up on the basepaths in order to plate Benintendi, but as it turns out the Sox bullpen didn't even wind up requiring the third insurance run.
Hudson got Alejandro Kirk to ground out harmlessly to close the seventh before a perfect eighth against the bottom of the order. And while Grant Taylor didn't look that wobbly, the extra padding it made it slightly easier to take each of the first two hitters of the ninth reaching on infield singles. Guerrero and Okamoto dug in and took the only two Jays' at-bats with runners in scoring position on the afternoon and made the least of it.
Guerrero lined out softly to Braden Montgomery in right on a sinker that got in on his hands, before Okamoto rolled over a slider for a tailor-made 6-4-3 to wrap the weekend on a high note.
Bullet points:
*The Montgomerii combined for four of the Sox's six hits on Sunday, and drove in nine runs during this weekend in Canada.
*The Sox are now 2-7-1 in their last 10 road series.
*Murakami mostly looks like he's still searching for his timing, but has walked in each of his last five games.
*Burke is running a 1.40 ERA over his last six outings, with 47 strikeouts to six walks in 38 2/3 innings.
