Coming into today, the Sox were looking to erase the memory of the horrible doubleheader yesterday. Instead, they just added to it. The Sox have now fallen for the third game in a row to a Cleveland team who, to be frank, is not all that impressive. The Sox shot themselves in the foot all series, and this one is a series to forget.
Dylan Cease took the hill today trying to salvage at least one game in this shortened 3 game series. Cease did not have his best stuff today, but really only threw one pitch that burned him. In the 3rd, a fastball to to Franmil Reyes was planted over the wall for a two run shot to put the Guardians up 2-0. Then, in the 5th, Cease ran into trouble, and a tapper up the middle got by a diving Leury Garica and gave Cleveland a 3-1 lead. Cease’s final line was 5.1 innings, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 walks, 3 K’s. Bennett Sousa came on in relief and got 2 outs in the 5th, giving up one run. Kendall Graveman came in and had a rough outing, only recording one out in this one. His final line saw him give up 2 hits and 2 ER. Matt Foster came on and threw 1.2 innings, allowing 2 hits while striking out 1.
The White Sox offense was once again nowhere to be found. The Sox scored 3 runs today, but 2 of the 3 runs today came off of some lousy Cleveland defense. Manager Tony La Russa shook things up a bit moving Leury Garcia to the #3 spot in the lineup. The rationale: “He’s had success against Plesac (.385), that’s one. He looked good yesterday. And when you’re kind of in a funk, sometimes a change of scenery does something”. In the end, where Garcia batted really didn’t matter, as the Sox bats were dominated by Cleveland pitching. Zack Plesac gave the Guardians 6.2 innings, giving up 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 walk, and 3 K’s. Luis Robert had a double in this one, Abreu did as well, and Gavin Sheets recorded 2 hits today. Yasmani Grandal had the lone RBI in this one with a sac-fly in the 4th.
Luis Robert did have to leave today’s game early with a minor groin strain. With the loss, the White Sox fell back to 6-6 on the season.
W: Zack Plesac (1-1) | L: Dylan Cease (2-1)
StatCast Breakdown
Box Score
Offensive Recap:
Pitching Recap:
White Sox Scoring Recap:
Top 4th: Yasmani Grandal hits a sac-fly to RF, scoring Leury Garcia. 2-1 Guardians
Top 7th: Adam Haseley reaches on throwing error, scoring Gavin Sheets and Jake Burger. 4-3 Guardians
Notable Performances
Gavin Sheets: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H
Gavin Sheets had a multi-hit effort today. Sheets went against the shift today for his first hit of the day. A little cue shot against the shift works! Hopefully this can get his bat going, because the Sox need a spark from someone in the lineup.
Luis Robert: 4 AB, 2 H
Robert hit a double today that broke a 0-for-21 slump and tallied a multi hit performance. Luis also left the game late in this one with a apparent injury, as previously mentioned.
Jose Abreu: 4 AB, 1 H
A long double by Jose today in this one was one of a few bright spots for the White Sox. On the same play, however, Leury Garcia had a costly baserunning blunder, as he ran Luis Robert off and forced third base coach to send Luis Robert home. Luis then got thrown out at the plate as a result.
Yasmani Grandal: 4 AB, 1 RBI
Yaz had 1 RBI today witch was a big one at the time that brought the Sox within 1 run.
Adam Haseley: 2 AB, 1 H
Adam Haseley tallied a hit in this one early; then he hit a little cue shot in front of the plate, that brought in two runs. Shaky Cleveland defense gave the Sox two runs on the play, but were really the only two runs Cleveland gave away in this series, as they were the far better defensive team.
Next Matchup
The Sox will head to Minnesota to take on the new look Minnesota Twins starting on Friday. They will be yet another divisional opponent that the Sox will face on this road trip.
Michael Kopech will take the mound tomorrow for the Sox against right-hander Bailey Ober. Game starts at 7:10 PM over on NBC Sports Chicago.
Follow us @SoxOn35th for more updates!
