Two series into the second half, the White Sox seem to have established a template -- win a laugher in Game 1, do nothing in Game 2, and take care of business by an ordinary margin in Game 3.
Wednesday night saw the White Sox maximize an all-singles offense spearheaded by Chase Meidroth, with a useful start from Anthony Kay backed up by an overpowering bullpen performance. The formula was good enough to win another rubber match, and if they keep winning two of three the rest of the way, you'll see them in October.
Meidroth went 4-for-4 from the sixth spot, Andrew Benintendi went 2-for-4 behind him, and they drove in all four White Sox runs by accounting for all four of their hits with runners in scoring position.
They made it look pretty simple. In the second, Meidroth came to the plate after Braden Montgomery drew a one-out walk and moved two bases on one very wild pitch, and although Meidroth fell behind old friend Tyler Alexander 0-2, he was able to lay off a couple of pitches in the dirt before golfing a less-low changeup into left field for the game's first run.
The next time Meidroth came to the plate in the fourth inning, he had runners on the corners after Cal Quantrill alternated walks with outs, and this time Meidroth inside-outed a single to right field to help the White Sox regain a lead at 2-1. Benintendi followed with a lined single to center that scored Colson Montgomery to extend the margin to 3-1.
Meidroth then made it 3-for-3 in the sixth inning when he followed a one-out single by Braden Montgomery with a single through the middle that moved Montgomery to third, after which Benintendi sliced another single to center for a 4-2 lead, which is where the score stayed the rest of the game.
Kay turned in a decent five innings, as is his style. It could have been better, as he allowed runs in both innings where his offense scored for him. It also could've been worse, because the Rangers loaded the bases on him with nobody out in the fourth inning, but could only scratch across one run.
Brandon Nimmo led off by punching a single to right, and then moved to third on Ezequiel Duran's double off the right field sidewall. Kay got ahead of Cam Cauley 0-2, but because Kay is mandated to hit a batter every start, he plunked the rookie on the foot to load the bases.
But on a 2-1 count, Kay was able to get a cutter in on Elias Diaz, who hit a slow bouncer to third base -- literally. It took Miguel Vargas right to the bag, and Vargas timed gloving it at the same time he stepped on the base, then fired a wormburner to first in time to get Diaz for a key double play. The Rangers scored on the play, but they still trailed by one, and Kay got Alejandro Osuna to flail at a sweeper for a three-pitch strikeout to escape the jam with minimal damage.
Kay spent the fifth inning treading carefully with walks to Jake Burger and Wyatt Langford before getting Nimmo to ground out to short, and the bullpen took over from there with four innings that were perfect as far as they were concerned. Jordan Hicks pitched around two defensive mistakes -- Edgar Quero dropping a foul popup, Vargas inexplicably bouncing a throw after gloving a hot shot -- but the latter error was the only baserunner White Sox relievers encountered. After Hicks nullified the miscues in the sixth, Grant Taylor struck out five of six batters he faced to get through the eighth, and Bryan Hudson struck out the first two batters of the ninth before ending the game on a slow roller to second for his fourth save of the season.
Bullet points:
*The bullpen's total line: 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K.
*The top four spots in the lineup went 0-for-15 with two walks. The offense didn't get going until Braden Montgomery.
*Murakami drew one of them, his eighth consecutive game with a walk. He's halfway to the team record of 16, which is held by Morrie Rath in 1912.
*Edgar Quero went 0-for-3 with a walk in his return to the lineup, but he dropped a popup and hit too shallow a fly ball for a sac fly to miss out on an additional run in the sixth. The White Sox didn't end up needing it.
