Apparently, if the sun is out, all you have to do to beat the White Sox is hit pop-ups. Or hope they bring in Jordan Leasure.
The Giants took a 3-0 lead in the fourth thanks to Jarred Kelenic misplaying a Luis Arraez fly ball into a triple, which a sac fly and four singles followed, all off sorta starter (after a Bryan Hudson opening performance), Erick Fedde. Kelenic tried to atone by leading off the fifth with a double, which was followed by singles by Tristan Peters and Drew Romo and a shot by Sam
Antonacci that drove in a run on a fielder’s choice, but it would have been more were it not for a great play by Willy Adames.
That made it 3-2. Munetaka Murakami then K’ed, but Miguel Vargas doubled Antonacci home to tie the game.
That would be the last point of the game where Vargas didn’t want to bury his head in the warning track.
In the bottom of the fifth, Arraez singled, and Casey Schmitt went deep to make it 5-3. Then with two outs Matt Chapman popped out behind third to end the inning, only Colson Montgomery didn’t chase it and Vargas lost it in the sun, so it went for a double. Fedde then walked the bases loaded, bringing up the only batter he’d had no trouble with, Harrison Bader.
Naturally, after Fedde proved he could handle Bader, Will Venable went to the freshly recalled Jordan Leasure, who served up a gopher ball after Miguel Vargas lost yet another pop-up — this one foul. The grand slam made it 9-3 and sent John Schriffen, Gordon Beckham, and Connor McKnight spiraling into an extended riff on Alcatraz, sharks, seals, kayaks, and just about anything besides baseball. Hard to blame them.
That was about it for anything interesting, except when Rafael Devers hit a pop-up, the wind blew fair in front of the plate, and Devers just stood and watched while Murakami lost that one in the sun and dropped it and ended up thrown out thanks to a nice stretch by Chase Meidroth.
Adames hit a homer in the eighth to make the final 10-3, but by then, the announcers were scheduling their kayaking for tomorrow. Again, can’t blame them.
Eight of the Giant runs were on Fedde’s tab, with Leasure only charged with Bader himself and not the guys Fedde put on the bases, and Trevor Richards tagged for the last run. In true hyper-inefficient White Sox fashion, despite only walking three and striking out six, the four pitchers needed 161 pitches to get through eight innings — Giants pitchers only needed 147 for nine, and they struck out 12 Sox, which takes more throws.
The Sox did have 10 hits, two each by Peters and Vargas, who were probably only about a net minus-five runs for the day.
The loss puts the Sox record at 26-25, with the series by the bay wrapping up tomorrow at 3:05 Central, Noah Schultz matching up against veteran lefty Robbie Ray, who’s fresh off being absolutely clobbered by the Diamondbacks.
