White Sox besmirch the reputation of American baseball to a foreign audience, lose to Jays
/Remember May 28? Besides being yours truly's 27th birthday, it was the night the White Sox wrapped up a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians and pushed themselves over .500 by a game. It didn't sound crazy to suggest the Sox could load up and gun for the playoffs.
It didn't sound crazy, but it was. They've lost 17 of 25 contests since, seven of their last eight, and couldn't even feign competitiveness against J.A. Happ and the Blue Jays Thursday night, losing by a score of, /flips through box scores....eh...it says here 7-0. They lost 7-0. To the Blue Jays. In Canada, I guess.
Scott Carroll, finding his way back into the rotation after Andre Rienzo was booted out, pretty clearly had nothing from the beginning, least of all a shiny new cutter worth writing home about. The first three batters he faced all laced hits off him, with Adam Lind's RBI double putting the Jays up 2-0 when Moises Sierra tried unsuccessfully to return the ball to America with his throw.
As a fun follow-up to the first inning, Jose Reyes smoked a ball to dead center that clipped the top of the wall in the second, and umpires spent five minutes debating whether it was a home run or an RBI triple. On the plus side, it was just a triple. On the side that is not the plus side, the game was already over. Lind got Carroll once more in the fifth by poking a single up the middle with the bases loaded, leaving the 29-year-old rookie with five earned runs allowed on nine hits in five innings.
Carroll's counterpart, J.A. Happ, made mincemeat of a White Sox team whose plane didn't land until 4:00am, and whose lineup hit like they all had the fish. Surprisingly working in the mid-90's, the Northwestern alum tied his longest outing of the season with 7.2 shutout innings, and was responsible for eight of the Sox 10 whiffs on the night. Given the number of opportunities he had, I think Dayan Viciedo accounting for three out of the 10 is more impressive. Most impressively, the Sox somehow went 0-10 with RISP despite only having six baserunners.
Viciedo also dropped a Dioner Navarro fly ball to the wall to lead off the fifth, booted it away from him, then recovered just in time to throw out the portly catcher at the plate. The Blue Jays dugout was in hysterics. Viciedo had a bad night, which will look nice next to his bad week and bad month.
Since there was time to kill, Robin Ventura worked in the two other undesirable fifth starter options into the game in relief. Eric Surkamp allowed an earned run without allowing a hit in 1.1 innings of work, and Andre Rienzo made 1.2 innings seem like three hours (44 pitches!) while also allowing a single run.
Adam Eaton left the game after the top of the first inning with a leg injury that resembled his previous hamstring issues. What a night!
Team Record: 36-44
Next Game: Friday at 6:07 p.m. CT at Toronto on CSN
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