Three games down in what has shaped up to be a very exciting series against the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Guardians took the field behind Tanner Bibee in search of a series victory.
Bibee wasn’t able to go as long as he, Vogt, and the bullpen would have preferred. After a rain delay set the start time back about 30 minutes, the warning track was not draining properly and forced another delay. This was after Bibee had already taken his warm up pitches, so he had to sit and then get back out there
for a start. Unfortunately the White Sox did get to him, putting up six runs in four innings of work. Bibee gave up three home runs.
Franco Aleman pitched the fifth, walking one and striking out one. Colin Holderman had a rare, bad outing. He did not record a single out and loaded the bases. Vogt turned to Erik Sabrowski to face the current division rival with no outs and bases loaded. Despite the high leverage situation, Sabrowski remained even-keeled, only allowing one of the inherited runners to score and intentionally walking one batter.
Hunter Gaddis had a clean seventh inning, striking out one and turning things over to Shawn Armstrong for the eighth. Armstrong struggled, having been used a lot this series, he got two out, but loaded the bases. Vogt had to turn the bullpen again to get out of this inning. Tim Herrin struck out the next batter and retired the side. Cade Smith pitched the ninth and did his thing. All three batters faced hit into an out.
The offense did a great job at answering each of the White Sox runs. In the bottom of the first, down two, Travis Bazzana hit a lead off double to left. Chase DeLauter slapped his first homer since May 17th to right center.
Kyle Manzardro drew a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Gabriel Arias hit a single to third and, with two outs, Daniel Schneemann hit a single to center to score Manzardo.
In the bottom of the second, while no runs were scored, it is worth highlighting some impressive base stealing efforts from Kahlil Watson. Watson hit a single to right and stole second and third base to put himself in scoring position with two outs.
Before the bottom of the fifth inning, the White Sox came back and went up three runs on Cleveland. Chase DeLauter hit a single to lead off the bottom of the fifth. Kyle Manzardo reached on a fielder’s choice that allowed DeLauter to reach second base on a fielding error. Gabriel Arias decided to be good in one at bat today and hit a towering 446 foot home run to the bleachers to tie it up again.
The White Sox pulled ahead by one run, which ultimately proved to be insurmountable by the Guardians offense. Cleveland unloaded the bullpen, unloaded the bench, but were only able to split this series with Chicago. This was a critical series in the AL Central. The Guardians find themselves still 1.0 games back from the White Sox and only three games above .500. Tomorrow is an off day for the club as they travel to Minnesota to face the Twins for three, then head to Miami to face the Marlins for three before heading into the All Star Break.
