Back on July 2, the Bryan Rocchio pounced on a first-pitch Grant Taylor fastball up and away and sent it over the right field wall for a walk-off two-run homer and a 6-5 Cleveland victory.
When Rocchio came to the plate with runners on second and third and two outs in the ninth inning tonight, Taylor adhered to at least one lesson. He dropped a curveball for strike one, then got Rocchio to foul off a slider for strike two. At that point, he went for another fastball up and away.
This time, Rocchio couldn't pull it. Instead, he lofted a fly ball high to left field. It wasn't particularly impressive off the bat at 88.8 mph, and Statcast only gave it an expected batting average of .060. But it just kept drifting, drifting, drifting toward the left field corner, and away, away, away from Sam Antonacci, whose best sprint and dive couldn't close the distance. He trapped it on the way back up off the turf, and Rocchio once again had another two-run hit for another walk-off, setting up a dramatic rubber match Wednesday afternoon.
Taylor walked the batter ahead of Rocchio to set up the walk-off in July, and he once again created some of his own trouble tonight. Nathaniel Lowe earned his way one with a roped single past a diving Chase Meidroth, but he walked Patrick Bailey with one out to put the go-ahead run aboard, and both advanced into scoring position on Petey Halpin's soft groundout to first for second out. Taylor couldn't record the third out, which would've been his sixth of the evening.
In the end, there wasn't any recourse. Taylor handled the eighth inning relatively smoothly and had recorded the White Sox's only two strikeouts of the night, and while there was a base open, there's no advantage to facing Steven Kwan with nowhere to put him. The only way out was through, and Taylor couldn't get there.
Rocchio's hit spoiled what would've been another resilient effort from the White Sox, who dug out of a 3-0 hole after Chris Murphy's opening bid backfired. The Sox scored a run in the fourth when Jo Adell misplayed Brenton Doyle's deep fly to right into a triple, and Doyle came home on an Antonacci single. They scored another run in the fifth when Tristan Peters got plunked, moved to third on a Chase Meidroth double to right (another unconvincing read by Adell), and scored on Miguel Vargas' sac fly to make it 3-2.
For the second straight night, the steady pressure early paid off in the sixth. Antonacci led off with a single against Craig Yoho, who then walked Kyle Teel. Colson Montogmery pinch-hit for Luisangel Acuña and lined out to center, but Antonacci advanced to third, and a walk to Peters loaded the bases with one out.
In came righty-killer Hunter Gaddis, but the White Sox weren't fazed. Chase Meidroth lined a single to left that scored Antonacci to make it a 4-3 game, Randal Grichuk hit a game-tying sac fly with all runners advancing, and then Vargas delivered a key two-out, two-run single to give the White Sox a 6-4 lead.
For 8⅔ innings, it looked like that kind of offense would be just enough. Davis Martin entered earlier than anticipated, coming in with two outs in the first after Murphy gave up back-to-back homers to Adell and Bazzana, and he ended up calming the game down. Although he didn't strike out a soul, Martin still ended up providing 5 ⅓ innings of effective bulk work, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk.
Bazzana's second homer, a solo shot in the sixth, accounted for the earned run and narrowed the White Sox's lead to 6-5. Martin might have more regrets over the unearned run, as he bounced a pickoff throw with runners on the corners, allowing Rocchio to score to make it a 4-2 game. Adell was at the plate, and he ended up bouncing into a 6-4-3 double play.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox have been walked off eight times this season, and the Guardians have three of them.
*The White Sox had more sac flies tonight (two) than they did in their previous 21 games (one), which went nicely along with a 3-for-8 performance with runners in scoring position.
*The Guardians were only 1-for-5 with RISP, but it was a pretty big "1."
*Munetaka Murakami struck out four times from the cleanup spot, only offsetting it with a walk.
*Doyle looked out of place batting fifth, but he went 2-for-3 with a run scored.
*Martin's pickoff error was annoying because he'd made a sensational play on a swinging bunt on the third base side of the mound by Angel Genoa the inning before. Martin spun and fired while falling away from first base, making an on-target throw.
