With chance to sweep, White Sox' bats fall asleep
You'd think that after rallying from a 6-3 deficit and scoring 4 runs in the eighth inning to beat the Tigers the night before, the White Sox' bats would have still been energized Thursday afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field.
Looking to sweep Detroit at home for the first time since 2006 and facing a seemingly overmatched starter in Kyle Lobstein, it was all there for the Sox' taking.
Or so it seemed.
Avisail Garcia's run-scoring single in the fourth tied the game at 1-1, and the White Sox were set up for a really big inning after Adam LaRoche followed Garcia with a walk to load the bases with no outs.
That brought Alexei Ramirez to the plate, and the slumping shortstop (.202 batting average) swung at Lobstein's first pitch.
Ramirez grounded the ball to Tigers third baseman Nick Castellanos, who stepped on the bag for one out and threw home to retire Jose Abreu and complete the double play.
Gordon Beckham grounded out to end the inning and the Sox snoozed the rest of the afternoon while falling to Detroit 4-1.
"Alexei hits it hard and it's just right at somebody," said White Sox manager Robin Ventura. "That's the way the game goes sometimes. You'd like it a little more up the middle and get something more out of that, but we had some opportunities off him in that inning. Other than that, Lobstein was good. He really had everybody off balance, he was getting ahead early and working both sides of the plate."
The Sox always seem to struggle against finesse left-handed starting pitchers, and Lobstein fits that profile.
While pitching a career-high 7⅔ innings, Lobstein held the White Sox to 1 run on 5 hits.
"You could tell by some of our swings," leadoff man Adam Eaton said. "We seem like we let the one go right down the middle and then we'd swing at the ball in the dirt. He's a deke-and-dive-you type of guy but was very effective today with some of our free-swinging approach at times.
"It's kind of crazy. You can face some great pitchers here and there and show well. And then a guy that has some movement like Lobstein kind of throws you off a little bit and doesn't throw as hard as most guys do. Hats off today to him to keep us off balance."
Sox starter Jose Quintana kept his teammates in the game and had 8 strikeouts to boot.
But Quintana was out of the game after 5 innings because of a pitch count that stood at 107.
"It was a short one today for him," Ventura said. "They did a good job of kind of working him. He had a high pitch count there just getting through the fifth. It's a tough lineup to go through. Anytime you miss here, walk a guy, basehit, it becomes more difficult. They sit there and work counts and make it really hard on the starter."
If there was one bright side for the White Sox, they won two of three in the series.
"Of course we're upset about losing this one," catcher Tyler Flowers said. "That's a pretty good series we played right there. You can approach it that way with so many games left."
White Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds at U.S. Cellular Field
TV: Comcast SportsNet Plus today; WGN Saturday; Comcast SportsNet Sunday
Radio: WSCR 670-AM
Pitching matchups: The Sox' Hector Noesi (0-3) vs. Jason Marquis (3-1) today at 7:10 p.m.; Carlos Rodon (0-0) vs. Johnny Cueto (2-3, 2.72) Saturday at 6:10 p.m.; John Danks (1-3) vs. Michael Lorenzen (1-1) Sunday at 1:10 p.m.
At a glance: This is the White Sox' first interleague series of the season. They last played the Reds in 2009, winning 2 of 3 at Cincinnati. The Sox are 14-3 overall vs. the Reds in interleague play. Saturday's matchup is enticing. Rodon makes his first major-league start for the Sox and Cueto is second in the NL with a 0.86 WHIP while striking out 40 in 43 innings. Heading into Thursday night's game at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati third baseman Todd Frazier was tied for the NL lead with 9 home runs. The White Sox have scored 1 run or less in 7 games this season.
Next: Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park, Monday-Wednesday
- Scot Gregor