It’s certainly nice to watch a White Sox game where the team that looks like it has no idea how the game is supposed to be played is the other guys.
It was the supposedly good Mariners (yeah, yeah, they’ve got 18 guys playing in the WBC, but so what?) who misplayed two bunts, started a two-run giveaway with an obvious error that was somehow called a hit by a verrrry friendly official scorer, hit four batters, wild-pitched a run home, went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, etc., etc., etc. …
meanwhile, the Sox played pretty decent ball.
Early on, it looked like typical Soxdom. Facing the very good Logan Gilbert, Chicago got the bases loaded with one out in the second on one of those hit batters, a walk and a bloop single — only to have Braden Montgomery strike out and Chase Meidroth pop up.
But once Gilbert left in the fifth for Carlos Vargas and his 16.88 spring ERA, Montgomery singled, went to second when a Meidroth bunt went for what was called a hit, went to third on a force out and scored on a wild pitch. In the seventh, Dru Baker (in for Montgomery) doubled, Meidroth walked, Dustin Harris (in for Luisangel Acuña) bunted for what was called a hit for no reason, and lo and behold, up came Andrew Benintendi.
That made the score 3-0, and Sox added two more in the eighth on a Caden Connor single (in reality an error, when the throw from short that had him by 15 feet went 10 feet wide of the bag), a couple of hit batters and a Harris single.
Benintendi and Harris each had two of the 10 White Sox hits. The Sox ended up 4-for-17 with runners in scoring position, which isn’t great, but will do considering 17 is a whole lot of runners to get to second and third.
Meanwhile, Sox pitchers mostly cruised. Grant Taylor acted as an opener, after which Davis Martin had an easy three innings, with one hit, one walk, no runs, and four K’s. Four pitchers later, the Mariners finally scored off Tyson Miller in the eighth. They threatened in the ninth, but decided actually scoring was too much work.
Meanwhile, before the game the White Sox optioned Tanner McDougal to Charlotte and reassigned Noah Schultz to minor league camp. He’ll end up in Charlotte, as well.
The Sox host the Royals tomorrow, with a 3:05 p.m. start time because of that Daylight Savings weirdness.
