For the first seven innings, it certainly seemed like the White Sox (61-57) channeled the Pope in the series opener, mashing three solo home runs for three of their four runs in front of a 40,000-person crowd, all wearing Pope hats.
From first pitch, the Pope vibes were completely out of hand. | Chicago White Sox
Unfortunately, the Chicago bullpen wasn’t as blessed, and wound up blowing the save in the top of the eighth, allowing the Reds (57-61) to come all the way back and steal the game in the top of the 10th, 5-4.
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Righthander Sean Burke looked as good as ever, and outside of a solo home run given up to Eugenio Suárez, he was completely under control, only surrendering one run on three hits while striking out eight along the way. Burke put together three true 1-2-3 innings in his seven innings of work: the first, third and fourth (he technically recorded four outs in the third, with Héctor Rodríguez reaching on a dropped-third strike). In fact, Edgar Quero was just as devoured by Burke’s knuckle curve that dove out of the zone to the ground as Rodríguez, who completely whiffed. The pitch was so far out of the strike zone that it didn’t even appear in the MLB Gameday feed:
Exhibit A, for Awesomeness. | MLB / Baseball Savant
Offensively, the South Siders were looking great early in the game, blasting three solo home runs and an RBI double to go up four runs, 4-0.
The White Sox were averaging a long ball an inning through two, beginning with Brenton Doyle smashing a first-pitch, leadoff home run in the first, and Edgar Quero following it up with one of his own in the bottom of the second, giving Burke and Chicago a pair of insurance runs early in the game.
Edgar Quero, fueled by Pope Power. | Chicago White Sox
The Good Guys took an inning off of the moon shots in the third, but Miguel Vargas picked it right back up in the fourth, driving the third Sox bomb of the day over the left-field fence, 3-0:
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The fun didn’t stop there, though. Randal Grichuk ripped his 15th double of the season to restart a rally, and advanced to third on a ground ball from Braden Montgomery to put himself in scoring position. With two outs, Quero was bailed out on an 0-2 count by getting hit by a pitch, and Sam Antonacci legged out a two-bagger to score the fourth run of the game for the South Siders, 4-0.
Burke had cruised through the first four, and didn’t allow a hit until Eugenio Suárez took him deep on a solo shot in the fifth. He otherwise retired the next three batters in order, not letting the blemish to his outing get to him in the slightest. Suárez seemed to have Burke’s number tonight, however, as he smoked a double in the seventh, sending Sean with a parting gift before his day was over. Once again Burke remained calm and in control, striking out the final two batters he faced to complete his excellent performance, seemingly on the hook for a win with a three-run lead going into the eighth.
The issue, however, is that the bats shut down for the rest of the game, and the Chicago bullpen apparently did not want to take Burke’s unhittable cue. Lefthander Bryan Hudson came in to relieve the starter in the top of the eighth, and he had a rare, weak outing where the batters were just all over him. Hudson gave up three straight singles before being taken out of the game, after Elly Da La Cruz mashed the third hit while driving in Cincy’s second run of the game to cut the White Sox lead in half, 4-2.
Ideally Hudson would have lasted way longer than three batters, but he was getting dinked and doinked enought that Will Venable made the call to the bullpen early, bringing Grant Taylor in to manage what we hoped would be the final two innings of a win on the South Side. Taylor was able to get Sal Stewart to fly out for the first out of the inning, but he walked JJ Bleday to load the bases up and raise everyone’s heart rate. The Bleday walk didn’t end up coming back to bite them on the scoreboard, but Tyler Stephenson was able to poke a base hit out to right, scoring two runs to tie the game up at four. Thankfully, Munetaka Murakami made the wise decision to cut Braden Montgomery’s on-line throw headed home and fired to second behind Bleday to catch him off of second base for a clutch second out, before Suárez flew out to end the inning.
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All three runs were charged to Hudson, though Grant Taylor wound up with the blown save.
The White Sox were brutally flat at the plate for the rest of the game, with only Murakami getting a hit, with a double in the bottom of the eighth to extend his on-base streak. Though the South Siders only left four on base, they went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Lefthander Sean Newcomb came in for the 10th in an effort to prevent the ghost runner from scoring, but the Reds were able to score their free run while Chicago bombed all three opportunities in the bottom of the 10th. For Cincinnati, back-to-back fly outs let the runner advance to third, and score on a sacrifice fly from De La Cruz to take the lead, 5-4. Yep, the Reds won it in the 10th without the benefit of a hit. Great new rules, MLB.
Sam Antonacci battled through a 14-pitch at-bat before striking out against Reds closer Emilio Pagán for the first out of the 10th. Luisangel Acuña and Tristan Peters were the last hope for the Good Guys, but both popped out in the infield, sealing a heartbreaker on the South Side, and losing a game on the Detroit Tigers in the division race to boot.
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Tomorrow is another day, and while we can hope the Cleveland Guardians can even out the series with the Tigers to hold the division lead to at least 2 ½ games, but the White Sox need to come back with a vengeance tomorrow and take care of business. Luis Castillo will take the mound for his second outing since joining the South Siders, going up against another righthander as the Reds turn to Rhett Lowder.
MVP
Sean Burke: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 8 K, HR, WP, no decision
Runners-Up
Brenton Doyle: 1-for-3, leadoff HR, R, RBI
Miguel Vargas: 1-for-4, R, RBI, HR
Edgar Quero: 1-for-3, R, RBI, K, HR, HBP
Sam Antonacci: 1-for-4, RBI, 2 K, 2B
Cold Cat
Bryan Hudson: 0 IP, 3 H, 3 R
Runners-Up
Colson Montgomery: 0-for-4, 3 K
Braden Montgomery: 0-for-4, 2 K, OA
Luisangel Acuña: 0-for-4, K
