What is the story about?
White
Sox 4, Rangers 2
- And back to .500 we go.
- It could be worse. Being at .500 is better than being below .500. Given a choice between the two, I’ll take being at .500.
- Also, the Rangers are still in first place, by virtue of Seattle losing. So that’s something.
- The Rangers pitchers were fine, for the most part, I guess. Tyler Alexander gave up a run on a walk and a wild pitch that allowed that runner to go to third, putting him position to score on the subsequent single. Cal Qunatrill pitched three innings, two of which were good, one of which was very bad, and resulted in three runs scoring. Jakob Junis allowed the fourth run on three consecutive singles, though they weren’t exactly blistered.
- The three pitchers after that — Robby Ahlstrom, Peyton Gray and Jacob Latz — did their jobs and kept the White Sox off the board so that the Rangers offense would be able to rally.
- The Rangers offense, unfortunately, did not rally.
- Latz was making only his second appearance since the All Star Break, due to the general dearth of close games where the Rangers had the lead. This was one of those “he needs some work and there’s an off day tomorrow” type appearances, rather than a “this is the ideal spot to utilize Jacob Latz” appearance.
- The bats were largely silent. Cam Cauley had a home run, the first of his major league career. Off the bat it looked like an opposite field deep pop that would be caught on the warning track or something. It, instead, kept carrying and went several rows deep into the stands.
- That was the second inning, and so one would be forgiven for thinking that that was the beginning of a respectable offensive output for the Rangers. Those thoughts would end up being banished.
- The Rangers put runners on the corners with two outs in the third, but didn’t score. In the fourth, with Chicago having scored a pair of runs in the top of the inning off of Quantrill, the bases got loaded up on a Brandon Nimmo single, an Ezequiel Duran double, and a Cam Cauley 0-2 hit by pitch. Sadly, they only scored one run due to an Elias Diaz double play and an Alejandro Osuna strike out.
- Texas didn’t get another hit the rest of the way after that Duran double.
- They did manage some baserunners, yes yes. A couple of walks, a hit by pitch, an error. But no hits. And the final nine batters of the game resulted in seven Ks and a pair of weak groundouts.
- This is how the game ends…not with a bang, but with a whimper.
- Tyler Alexander’s fastball topped out at 93.1 mph. Cal Quantrill hit 94.5 mph with his sinker. Jakob Junis reached 93.6 mph with his fastball. Robbie Ahlstrom’s fastball maxed out at 94.9 mph. Peyton Gray touched 94.3 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz’s fastball reached 96.2 mph.
- Justin Foscue had a 104.1 mph ground out.
- Now an off day to wallow in before a four game weekend wraparound series against Seattle.
