This picture is the game. Look at this picture. You have seen the game.
It's surprising the White Sox were even in this game. They should not have been in this game. Only you the viewer, could have observed the early portions of this game, as Andre Rienzo traipsed around like a man casually smoking at a gas station, courting disaster, and had thoughts as drenched in hubris and deluded exceptionalism as to think the Sox should be competing to win this game. Really, Saturday's 4-2 loss to the Padres was a big referendum on you.
After blowing through the first innings and getting two beautiful strikeouts with a tight overhand curveball, Rienzo burnt himself out after 3.1 innings of wildness and hanging cutters, and has now effectively followed two of the most promising outings of his career with two duds that call his future of the rotation into question.
Rienzo yielded a leadoff walk to Yonder Alonso to start the second and quickly went down 1-0 when Wil Venable ripped an RBI double down the line. The lanky Brazilian looked like he had rescued himself from a big inning when he caught Venable coming home on a comebacker, but the rundown took so long that it allowed Cameron Maybin run his way back into scoring position (though he hurt himself to do so).
The first of two booming doubles Rienzo would allow to backup catcher Rene Rivera would put the Padres up 2-0 early. And when the Sox scratched a run back in the bottom half after a heroic 'RBI GIDP' from Alejandro De Aza, Rienzo responded by loading the bases with no one out to start the third. It was here, after two innings spent on the lamb, that Rienzo's curveball came back to strike out Alonso, and even an RBI single from Venable was limited in damage since Carlos Quentin--oblivious as he is powerful--was the trailing runner, and ran into the tag at home.
Because of the limited damage, the Sox were within their usual firing range despite having to go to Scott Carroll in the fourth inning, Despite May's persistent offensive struggles...
