Baseball is such a weird sport.
At one point in this game, the White Sox were six outs away from ending their 10-game losing streak. In what felt like just a matter of seconds, the White Sox had given up five runs in the eighth inning and were just three outs away from seeing their losing streak extend to 11. All of a sudden, the White Sox scored seven runs in the ninth inning, shocking nearly everyone and winning the ballgame on an Andrew Vaughn walk-off three-run homer.
The game was started by Mike Clevinger, who gave the White Sox five innings of two-run baseball and pitched pretty well throughout the afternoon. From there, Gregory Santos and Joe Kelly looked great out of the bullpen, though the same could not be said for Reynaldo Lopez, Kendall Graveman, and – the game’s ultimate winner – Aaron Bummer. The trio gave up seven runs – six of them earned – in a game that had completely turned on its head.
Then, it turned on its head again. The White Sox sent nine hitters to the plate in the ninth inning, scoring seven runs with only two outs to play with. The stretch included strong at-bats throughout the lineup, including a tough lefty/lefty matchup for both Oscar Colas (SF) and Adam Haseley (1B). This is the team’s first comeback win of 4+ runs in the ninth inning since 2007.
There are still a lot of problems with this team. Today, however, they were victorious.
With the win, the White Sox finish the month of April with a record of 8-21.
W: Aaron Bummer (1-1) | L: Jalen Beeks (0-2)
StatCast Breakdown
Box Score
Offensive Recap:
Pitching Recap:
White Sox Scoring Recap:
- Bottom 1st: Gavin Sheets hits a sacrifice fly to left field. Adam Haseley scores. 1-0 White Sox.
- Bottom 6th: Yasmani Grandal homers (3) to center field. Eloy Jimenez scores. 3-2 White Sox.
- Bottom 7th: Eloy Jimenez singles to shortstop. Adam Haseley scores. 4-2 White Sox.
- Bottom 8th: Adam Haseley strikes out swinging. Passed ball by Christian Bethancourt. 7-5 White Sox.
- Bottom 9th: Jake Burger doubles to right field. Andrew Benintendi scores. 9-6 White Sox.
- Bottom 9th: Oscar Colas hits a sacrifice fly. Yasmani Grandal scores. 9-7 White Sox.
- Bottom 9th: Elvis Andrus singles to right field. Jake Burger scores. 9-8 White Sox.
- Bottom 9th: Adam Haseley singles to center field. Elvis Andrus scores. 9-9 Tie.
- Bottom 9th: Andrew Vaughn homers (3) to left field. Lenyn Sosa, Adam Haseley score. 12-9 White Sox.
Notable Performances
Mike Clevinger: 5 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
Clevinger pitched a good game for the White Sox today, and had all of his pitches working pretty well on the afternoon.
Adam Haseley: 3-for-4, 2 R, BB, K
Haseley had a nice day at the top of the lineup, spraying the ball around the ballpark.
Eloy Jimenez: 4-for-5, RBI, R
If the White Sox are going to climb out of the hole they’ve dug themselves into this season, they’re going to need more performances like the one they got from Eloy Jimenez today. Hopefully, he can start to elevate the ball a bit more as well.
Other Game Highlights
Next Matchup
The White Sox will get an off day on Monday before welcoming the Minnesota Twins to town. Michael Kopech is scheduled to go against Joe Ryan in the opener.
The game will begin at 6:10 PM CT on Tuesday over on NBC Sports Chicago.
Follow us @SoxOn35th for more throughout the season
Featured Image: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
It felt so good.