After brutal loss to Guardians, White Sox flip script in 4-1 win
There was plenty of blame to go around after the White Sox blew an 8-2 lead in the ninth inning and lost to Cleveland 12-9 in 11 innings Monday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Sox's relief pitching was terrible, the hitters didn't come through late in the game like the Guardians did and manager Tony La Russa's decision to pitch Josh Naylor in the 11th inning backfired.
The blistering defeat also exposed the White Sox's leaky defense again, and shortstop Tim Anderson made 2 more errors.
Heading into Tuesday night's game against Cleveland, Anderson had the most errors (9) in the major leagues and the Sox were tied with the Pirates for the most (26) as a team. In his unique way, Anderson stepped up and addressed his defensive issues before the White Sox played a clean game Tuesday night and bounced back with a 4-1 win over the Guardians.
"(Shoot), I'm like the worst right now," Anderson said. "All I can do is get better. It's up on me to continue to keep working and at the end of the day, I'm just playing a game. It's not like I'm out there intentionally trying to (screw) up. I'm trying. I'm working hard."
There is absolutely no chance the Sox move Anderson off shortstop.
"When you've got the talent and you've already proven you can make all those plays, it's the old (Vince) Lombardi thing, you strive for perfection and you achieve excellence," manager Tony La Russa said. "I hope every game it's the ninth inning with a 1-run lead and a groundball is hit to Tim. We're going to win almost all those games."
Anderson's bat is his main calling card, and he was 3-for-4 with 2 RBI in Tuesday's win over Cleveland. Gavin Sheets homered for the second straight game, a 2-run shot.
Turning the page on the series opening setback was No. 1 on the White Sox's next day to-do list.
Lucas Giolito got the start and lowered his ERA to 0.92 over his last 9 starts vs. Cleveland while allowing 1 run on 6 hits and a walk over 7 innings. The right-hander also had 5 strikeouts while throwing 91 pitches in his longest outing of the season.
"(Monday) night was a heartbreaker, it was tough," Giolito said. "But I think we're in the spot where we can self evaluate very well. We didn't have to say anything, we didn't have to have a meeting. We knew coming into today what we needed to improve, be ready to play hard for 9 innings and that's what we did.
"Tip my cap to all the guys behind me today. The defense was spectacular. It was important that I got deep into that game with our bullpen being a little bit exhausted and they were the ones that allowed me to do that."