On an afternoon where the White Sox's most second-guessable decision paid off, it was the most tried-and-true bet that failed them.
One inning after Tommy Pham put the White Sox ahead with a three-run homer from the cleanup spot, Hagen Smith issued a pair of walks in his second inning of work, and Sean Newcomb allowed them both to score on Petey Halpin's first career homer off a lefty to put the Guardians back in front. Newcomb failed to retire any of the four batters he faced, and a José Ramírez RBI double forced Will Venable to call for a third pitcher to bring a miserable sixth inning to an end.
The White Sox tried to threaten the Cleveland bullpen, but a second big hit proved elusive, and now the White Sox trail the Guardians by a half-game. It's their first day out of first place since early July.
Smith came in to relieve Anthony Kay after four innings and worked around a two-out double with little issue in the fifth. He walked David Fry with one out in the sixth, but struck out Angel Genao to come within an out of nursing a one-run lead through a second full inning.
Alas, he walked Austin Hedges on five pitches, and that's when Venable called for Newcomb.
Newcomb has been the White Sox's best reliever with inherited runners, allowing just three of 32 to score on his watch. But then he fell behind Halpin 3-0, and while Halpin watched a fastball for strike one at the top of the zone, a thigh-high sinker on the inner half ended up in the right field seats some 393 feet away. Halpin came into the game 2-for-36 against lefties in his career, to further underscore the odds.
Newcomb then walked the next two batters he faced before giving up a sizzled double into the left-field corner to Ramírez. He gave up two runs on two hits and two walks, and he's now been scored upon in five of six September appearances. Jordan Hicks came on to strike out the only hitter he faced, and Noah Schultz set down all six hitters he saw, but by then it was too late.
The Cleveland uprising relegated the heroics of Pham to the footnote pile. He apparently made an elevator pitch to Chris Getz and argued his way into the cleanup spot, and while it seemed like a ridiculous notion, there was a brief, incredible payoff. Chase Meidroth and Randal Grichuk singled off Parker Messick with one out, but Miguel Vargas flied out to bring Pham to the plate. Messick started Pham with a dangling curve, and Pham pounced, crushing it over the big left field wall for a 3-2 White Sox lead.
Venable pulled Kay at that point, and that's the one move that invites scrutiny. He allowed those two runs in the third inning and both were unearned. Halpin singled to start the inning, and after Brayan Rocchio struck out, Steven Kwan hit a rollover grounder to Meidroth. Meidroth charged at the runner and went to apply the tag, but Halpin was able to run through the tag and jar the ball loose. Not only was Kwan save, but Halpin advanced to third.
Kay got a tapper back from Ramírez and thought about going to second, but instead looked back the runner at third and flipped to first for the second out. That brought Jo Adell to the plate, and while Kay walked him in the first inning, he tried to start him with a cutter, only to give up a two-run single to left for the game's first scoring.
Otherwise, Kay held up his end of the bargain, allowing two singles and two walks over four innings, and without racking up pitch count worries (66, 40 for strikes). The general concern was that Kay was about to face the Guardians a third time through, and that's been a big problem for him the last month or so. The idea was probably to go to Smith for two innings and Newcomb for two innings, but neither reliever could make it out of the sixth.
Bullet points:
*Colson Montgomery left the game after taking a pitch off his wrist. Munetaka Murakami had the day off until that point.
*Meidroth went 3-for-5 with a run scored at the top of the order, and Grichuk was 2-for-5 behind him. The rest of the lineup went 3-for-25.
*Noah Schultz needed just 18 pitches to get through his two innings, although he didn't record a strikeout. If Newcomb is out of gas, then such relief work from Schultz may become a lot more necessary than initially figured.
*The Guardians are idle on Thursday while the White Sox play the Tigers, so this is the Sox's chance to start putting the tiebreaker to use.
