Baseball feels more organic when Nancy Faust is in a booth with an organ. Her presence in the ballpark this afternoon, which precluded the usual barrage of pop songs, crowd-stimulating noises, and things that my dad would refer to as “canned bullshit,” set the tone for what turned out to be an improbably fun day at the ballpark as the White Sox staked themselves a season-high four-game lead in the AL Central with a 5-2 win over the Guardians.
This is a Sox team that has made its hay with youthful
energy. But even without the thumping bass that typically blasts from Rate Field’s PA system, the action on the field and the feeling in the stands was as vibrant as ever. When it appeared that Cleveland would put a damper on the 30,000 strong crowd’s supportive push with three straight hits and two runs against Davis Martin to open the game, the Sox responded with three consecutive hits of their own to start their part of the action.
The Sox only managed to get one run out of their hit parade, though. For a moment, when Guardians starter Joey Cantillo punched out three consecutive hitters to escape the early jam, it seemed as if the building momentum had been stifled.
Then the tarps came out.
One two-hour rain delay later, it felt like it didn’t matter. When Tim Herrin took the ball for Cleveland in relief of Cantillo, it was a whole new ballgame. Herrin did his job, but his successor Craig Yoho couldn’t. For the second straight day, the Guardians had grabbed themselves a 2-0 lead before falling victim to a big crooked number from the South Siders. After taking an inning to warm up, Miguel Vargas, Randal Grichuk and Braden Montgomery all reached base in succession with two outs before the other Montgomery broke things open with one swing of the bat.
For most of the last half-decade, the thought of 20,000 Sox fans waiting out a two-hour rain delay while trailing would have been nigh-unthinkable. The ones who stood tall through the pause were also rewarded by witnessing Hagen Smith’s long-awaited big league debut. He lived up to every bit of the scouting report, throwing just 25 of 48 pitches for strikes (and even fewer in the zone) and walking four over two innings. He also struck out three, drew whiffs on 33% of the swings against him, and kept the opponent off the board long enough for the Sox offense to take control of the game.
That’s not a location chart that’s going to get it done long-term, but he got away with it today, which is hard to be mad about in a big league debut. Despite having all pitched just yesterday, Sean Newcomb, Bryan Hudson and Jordan Hicks once against answered the bell with aplomb, keeping Cleveland off the board for three more innings.
One critical piece of last night’s bullpen picture was missing, as Grant Taylor was clearly unavailable, leaving Trevor Richards to handle the ninth inning. As Richards walked two of the first three hitters he saw in the ninth inning, flashbacks circulated of the righthander’s two-for-one blown save(s) in Boston earlier this week.
Magnifying the unease was the man who stepped to the plate as the tying run as a wild pitch sent the baserunners to second and third.
They’re playing Cleveland. You already know who it was.
Maybe this Sox team really is different. Perhaps the ghosts of Josh Naylor have been exorcised. Richards stiffened his back and got José Ramírez to fly out to Brenton Doyle in center field, allowing a meaningless run to cross over in the process. It subsequently took just a single pitch to get Rhys Hoskins to sail one straight into Braden Montgomery’s glove, securing a 5-3 win for the good guys, and a four-game lead over both the Guardians and the Twins. Detroit now occupies second place alone at 58-60, 3 ½ games behind.
If the conclusion to this week’s series in Boston felt like a missed opportunity to make a statement that this isn’t a team that’s going to go away down the stretch, I’d gauge that this weekend did well to compensate. The Sox offense has been touch-and-go as the league enters a sudden dead-ball era, the way the offense and pitching alternated picking up each other’s slack over the course of these three games was encouraging in the big picture. Nobody’s going to mistake the White Sox for a juggernaut, but with Smith and Tanner McDougal — who appeared ready to make his own debut had Richards not been able to work out of his own jam — providing real bullpen upside, I’d have a pretty big pit in my stomach if I was a rival AL Central team.
The Sox have a rest day at home tomorrow before welcoming the Cincinnati Reds for three games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It would be prudent for them to use that rest day wisely, as this series also kicks off a stretch of 16 consecutive game days, a gauntlet that could very well decide the fate of the division.
The highly-anticipated Pope Hat giveaway set for Tuesday night has already sold out, and the thought of newly-minted ace Sean Burke toeing the rubber with 40,000 Catholics-for-a-night roaring behind them in pursuit of an extended division lead can’t help but tickle the imagination. That’ll be followed up on Wednesday with Luis Castillo’s second turn through the rotation on the South Side, with Thursday’s starter yet to be announced. The first two are set for 6:40 p.m. CT, while Thursday is a 1:10 matinee contest.
MVP
Colson Montgomery: 1-for-3, HR, 3 RBI
Runners-Up
The Bullpen: 8 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 7 BB, 8 SO
Brenton Doyle: 2-for-5, 2B, R
Cold Cat
Luisangel Acuña: 0-for-4, 2 K
Runners-Up
Davis Martin: IP, 2 H, 2 ER, BB
Braden Montgomery: 0-for-3, BB, 3 SO, 4 LOB
