For the second game in a row, White Sox pitchers held the more-or-less-league-average offense of the Rays to one run, but this time the hitters forgot to send missiles out of the park. Or, much of any in the park.
Still despite being shut out, there were some good things to grow on.
Using an opener for Noah Schultz turned out to be a good idea. Jordan Hicks, playing the role for the first time, had a clean first inning, and Schultz then followed with one of his best outings of the year, five innings
of three-hit, no-walk ball, the only run coming on a bloop single by Nick Fortes in the fifth off a pretty good pitch:
Schultz had excellent control, especially given his history, throwing first-pitch strikes 12 of 19 times.
The bullpen added two more scoreless innings, the big news there being that Seranthony Domínguez had his second straight strong outing in a pressure situation, so there is hope he can turn out to be solid back-end choice after all.
As for the offense, the good news is that they only made one out with a runner in scoring position. The bad news is that’s because they only had one at-bat with a runner in scoring position, when Sam Antonacci lined out with men on first and third in the fifth.
Antonacci had drawn a walk from Drew Rasmussen to start the game but got caught trying to steal. After that, Rasmussen struck out five in a row, part of his 10 on the day. That would be the only free pass from the Rays, compared to 16 Sox Ks, many, many of them coming on swings far outside the zone, especially on 3-2 counts. So much for the vaunted improvement in plate discipline.
Sox batters did make Rasmussen throw a lot of pitches — that happens when you don’t hit any — especially on a nice nine-pitch at-bat by Edgar Quero in the third that ended in one of his two singles on the day … 40% of the Sox output.
The only person with a rougher night at the plate than Sox hitters was ump Alfonso Marquez, who got challenged more than a youngster claiming he didn’t do the bad thing. Both teams won a bunch, Quero doing particularly well, but Marquez was right enough that all challenges were exhausted by the ninth.
Oh, and the really good news, if you’re going to lose a game — it was over in a Mark Buehrle-esque two hours and 14 minutes.
The loss takes the Sox to 58-52, currently 2 ½ games up up in the AL Central. The rubber match of the series tomorrow afternoon has Anthony Kay and righty Griffin Jax doing the mound work.
