Back when the Red Sox were the worst team in the AL East, before they changed their mind and decided to become the hottest team in baseball for a month running, the White Sox were reportedly interested in Sonny Gray as their trade deadline starting rotation upgrade.
Tonight provided a clear and convincing proof of concept of what the White Sox saw, as Gray pushed and pulled the White Sox lineup for eight strikeouts and mostly unconvincing contact otherwise over six innings, covering the first two-thirds of the White Sox's eighth shutout of the year.
The Red Sox have now issued two of those shutouts, improving their record to 5-0 against the White Sox with a run differential of 33-4, and Boston will have a chance to lock down the series sweep on Thursday.
Gray limited the White Sox to just three hits and two walks over his six scoreless, with Miguel Vargas accounting for three of the times on base. The only time they strung together successful plate appearances ended with Sam Antonacci getting cut down in front of home plate by multiple steps. He'd gotten plunked with two outs in the third, after which Munetaka Murakami walked and Vargas hit a bouncer over third base. Caleb Durbin made a fine diving stop, but faced a long, challenging throw to get Vargas. Antonacci kept running after stepping on third, betting that Contreras would have to commit too much to the throw in order to concentrate on his own.
But Durbin's throw was far enough off the bag that Contreras came off to field it, so he was able to track Antonacci's whereabouts and positioned himself to make a strong throw home immediately to Connor Wong, who slid in front of the plate to greet a diving Antonacci in the right-handed batter's box to end the inning.
That accounted for the only White Sox rally, outside of Andrew Benintendi doubling off the Green Monster with one out in the fourth and watching Braden Montgomery and Tristan Peters strike out behind him.
On the other side, Sean Burke had trouble shutting the door. He allowed two runs over 4⅓ hard-working innings, and both came with two outs. Wilyer Abreu singled with two outs in the first, took second on a fastball that glanced off Drew Romo's mitt for a wild pitch, then scored on Contreras' single to left. Abreu then came to the plate with two outs in the third and launched a dangling 3-2 slider over the short wall in right for a 2-0 lead.
Burke was able to pitch around a man on third and one out in the fourth, but all of the extra effort spiked his pitch count, and so Will Venable pulled Burke after 91 pitches and 4 ⅓ innings after a walk. A well-rested bullpen initially did the job, as Sean Newcomb got Abreu to line into a 3-unassisted double play to end the inning, and then preserved the 2-0 margin into the seventh.
The Red Sox were eventually able to scratch across two more single tallies, though. In the seventh, Jarren Duran singled off Newcomb to start the inning. After Huascar Brazobán entered for his White Sox debut, Duran stole second, took third when Romo's throw bounced into center, and scored on an Andruw Monasterio sac fly to left.
In the eighth, it was again Abreu, who drew a walk off Chris Murphy, stole second, then scored on Durbin's two-out opposite field single to right, which only served to take Aroldis Chapman out of the equation.
Bullet points:
*Antonacci reached 20 HBPs for the season, putting him three away from the team record.
*The Montgomerii had rough nights, even in the context of the White Sox lineup. Colson was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a double play before drawing a four-pitch walk to open the ninth, and Braden went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
*Chase Meidroth made a great ranging play to his right to deprive Durbin of a two-out single to end the sixth.
*Brenton Doyle and Joey Bart both struck out in pinch-hitting appearances, but at least Bart cut down a stolen base attempt at second, although the call could've gone the other way.
*The Red Sox are now 25-4 since July 1.
*Again, the Guardians and Twins both lost, so the White Sox still lead the AL Central by three games.
