Abbreviated outing for Kopech in White Sox's 6-3 loss to Rangers
The White Sox needed some big-time help from MLB's replay operations center in New York en route to beating the Rangers Tuesday.
Initially called out at home in the eighth inning, Elvis Andrus was ruled safe after replay review determined Texas catcher Jonah Heim illegally blocked the plate.
"For that call to be made, I'm dumbfounded," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's absolutely one of the worst calls I've ever seen and it was done by replay. It's a shame. It's embarrassing, really."
The Sox weren't so lucky Wednesday night in a 6-3 loss to Texas at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Michael Kopech looked good early, but the White Sox's starter gave up a 2-run homer to Ezequiel Duran in the fourth inning, which gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead.
Kopech did not come back for the fifth and, with a pitch count at a reasonable 86, there was an injury concern.
Sox manager Pedro Grifol said Kopech is fine.
"He's thrown a lot," Grifol said. "I just decided it was going to be one of those games where I was going to give him a rest."
After Texas scored 3 runs off reliever Jimmy Lambert in the fifth inning, newcomer Touki Toussaint took over in the sixth and pitched 4 hitless innings.
Toussaint started for Cleveland Friday, was placed on waivers Saturday and claimed by the White Sox Tuesday.
"It's been a whirlwind the last week," Toussaint said. "They told me to be ready to pitch and I went out there and tried to give the team a chance to win. I had good command of the fastball, threw my secondaries for strikes and got early contact."
Eloy Jimenez gave the Sox the early lead with an RBI double in the first inning before Texas stormed back.
Andrew Vaughn homered in the sixth inning and Seby Zavala had a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Catcher Yasmani Grandal was scratched before the game with a sore right knee.
Injury updates:
Tim Anderson pinch-hit in Tuesday night's win over the Rangers, but he was held out of the starting lineup Wednesday for the fourth straight game with a sore right shoulder.
With a day off Thursday, the White Sox are hoping Anderson is good to go Friday night against the Red Sox.
Anderson can hit and run, but the sore shoulder has been bothering his throwing.
On the injured list with a sore back, third baseman Yoan Moncada is still not close to returning.
Moncada has been out since June 14 with lower back inflammation.
"Hard to tell because he hasn't started hitting yet," manager Pedro Grifol said. "He was throwing a little (Tuesday), shagged a little bit, he felt OK. The back is weird. I guess it will let you know when it feels good and then you can take the next step. It could be 10 days, could be two weeks, I don't have an answer."
Back on IL:
After missing all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery, rejoining the Sox on May 16 and pitching well, Garrett Crochet is out with left shoulder inflammation.
"My recovery had been going really well," Crochet said. "I felt like I could pitch every day."
Now, the left-handed reliever is hoping to be back before the all-star break.
"I think it's just a bit of workload management that we are kind of doing to this point," Crochet said. "Hoping to get back out there in 2 to 3 weeks and be ready to rock."