For one glorious inning, the White Sox offense untangled itself, and that was good enough to secure the tiebreaker in the AL Central race.
A Tristan Peters 18-pitch walk sixth inning ushered Gavin Williams from a scoreless game, and a pitch off his helmet on the basepaths opened the floodgates for a six-run inning. Coupled with an effective night from the Seans -- Sean Newcomb opening, Sean Burke providing Sean Bulke -- and lockdown work from Hagen Smith, the White Sox were able to secure preserve their lead in the AL Central while picking up their seventh victory of the season, which tilts the all-important season series in their favor.
The last time the White Sox faced Gavin Williams back on Aug. 8, they couldn't crack the scoreboard until the sixth, when they posted five runs en route to a 6-3 victory. They followed the same script this time around, except they made it a half-dozen runs, and with the strangest of starts.
Andrew Benintendi led off with a grounder up the middle that a ranging Brayan Rocchio stopped, but lost on the exchange. When Peters came to the plate, Williams had a pitch count of 95, so his time was limited. After 18 pitches, including a whopping 12 foul balls, Williams' time was up. Peters made him throw and throw and throw until he left a curve off the outer edge for ball four, and out came Steven Vogt to pull him for lefty Tim Herrin.
The move should have worked, as Herrin got Colson Montgomery to hit a firm around to first, which could have led to a 3-6-3 double play. But while Nathaniel Lowe fielded it for "3," his throw never made it to the "6." Instead, it doinked off Peters' helmet and into shallow left field, allowing Benintendi to score the game's first run. Peters advanced to third, which brought the infield in and allowed Chase Meidroth to poke a grounder past a diving Rocchio for the White Sox's first hit with runners in scoring position and a 2-0 lead.
Braden Montgomery struck out swinging for the first out, but Will Venable pulled Sam Antonacci for Randal Grichuk, who blistered a single to left. The problem was he hit it too hard, and Montgomery had to hold at third to load the bases for Kyle Teel in a lefty-lefty matchup.
The fear was that he'd strike out, or worse, roll over into a double play to stunt the rally. The fear was unwarranted. Instead, he lashed a line drive to left that sliced away from a diving Angel Martínez for a two-run double that made it a 4-0 game. While Justin Jirschele got greedy and sent Grichuk to his doom at the plate for the second out, Miguel Vargas made it moot. Vogt called for righty Daniel Espino, but Vargas blew up the plan by detonating a full-count challenge fastball well over the left field wall for a 6-0 lead.
The White Sox wobbled a couple of times defensively, which is reflected in the fact that all three Cleveland runs were unearned, but the lead was never truly jeopardized.
For the second consecutive game, Colson Montgomery committed a costly two-out error, dropping a José Ramírez popup in shallow center field after emphatically calling for it, which allowed the first Guardians run to score. The plot thickened when Ramírez stole second, Chase DeLauter walked, and both runners stole again to put two runners in scoring position, but this time only the one run went on Montgomery's conscience, as Jo Adell flied out to left.
That ended Burke's evening after five innings, and it was a return to form. After a scoreless inning from Newcomb, Burke threw five innings with just the one unearned run allowed, yielding just four hits and two walks while striking out four. The velocity (an average fastball that rounded up to 96) and his body language (he hopped off the mound on third strikes with a little bit of a pirate jig) suggested he was feeling it.
Burke retired the five batters he faced to hit the ground running, erased a leadoff walk in the fourth with a double play ball, and likewise pitched around Adell's leadoff single in the fifth without issue. Perhaps he could have worked further into a sixth inning but the Montgomery error added 10 pitches to his tab, and when Travis Bazzana poked a leadoff double to left in the seventh, Venable went to Hagen Smith.
No worries, as Smith struck out the side on 12 pitches, and then worked around another popup Montgomery didn't catch for a scoreless eighth. (This one was ruled a single, and it was a far tougher chance, as it sliced behind him.)
The White Sox got the run back in the top of the ninth when Vargas walked, stole second, and scored on a Benintendi single through the right side two batters later. Murakami walked in between and was cut down at third for the second out on the bases, but it didn't matter. It also didn't matter that Vargas opened the bottom of the ninth by firing high and wide for no good reason. It turned into two more runs when David Fry hit a two-run homer off Trevor Richards to keep the game alive one batter longer, but both were unearned as well.
Had the White Sox settled for less in the sixth, there could have been far more gnashing of teeth about the defense and the offense. The latter had a number of golden opportunities against Williams earlier and failed to convert.
The game opened with Antonacci singling and Teel walking, but neither advanced any farther after a Vargas popout, Murakami strikeout and Benintendi flyout.
An even more tantalizing chance went by the boards in the fourth. Murakami led off by getting plunked, then made it to third on Benintendi's single to left center, with Benintendi making it to second on the throw. Peters struck out, but Colson Montgomery avoided one by getting plunked to load the bases. Alas, Meidroth's attempt to make contact resulted in a soft grounder to third and Ramírez turned into a force at the plate, and Braden Montgomery struck out to leave the bases loaded.
But thanks to the sixth inning, with a big assist from Peters' 18-pitch walk, strategic baserunning path, and a height that allowed his head to be in the way on a throw, the White Sox went 5-for-15 with runners in scoring position, which is the kind of average a team will take every day.
Bullet points:
*The Sox struck out 14 times, but the majority of them were concentrated in hat tricks for Teel, Murakami and the Montgomerii.
*The Guardians went 3-for-4 stealing bases on Burke and Teel, but the out was a big one, as Rocchio overslid second while Colson Montgomery kept the tag applied to keep a runner out of scoring position for the top of the Cleveland order.
*Williams didn't win any of his four starts against the White Sox, finishing the regular season 0-1 with a 3.98 ERA over 20⅓ innings.
*The White Sox drew five walks and got plunked three times, which helped supplement the nine hits and keep the pressure steady.
