The White Sox came from four runs down to have the winning run at the plate in the ninth, but the tale of this game came in the third inning.
The first pitch was moved up an hour to beat expected rainstorms, but somebody forgot to tell the players they were supposed to be in a hurry, so the game stretched over three hours, mostly thanks to some pretty awful pitching by both teams, as you might have guessed by the score.
Still, the biggest game lengthener came early. The Reds had taken a 3-0 lead in the first on two homers. The Sox got one run back when their first two batters, Chase Meidroth and Randal Grichuk, doubled to the left-field wall. Then they took the lead 4-3 in the second with four hits after two outs and no one on — singles by Sam Antonacci and Luisangel Acuña and doubles (again) by Meidroth and Grichuk.
Which brings us to the top of the third, with Sal Stewart, who had one of the first-inning dingers, leading off. Davis Martin threw one pitch a foot over Stewart’s head, then didn’t miss with the next one:
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Being a typical baseball team confrontation, it was more a benches-clearing chat than a brawl, with any former teammates getting to exchange pleasantries, but Davis got the heave-ho.
Was Davis intentionally throwing at Stewart? Very doubtful. Do you have to toss him after two such head shots? Yep.
That brought in Erick Fedde, it being handy to have a usual starter in the pen for such an occasion. Stewart scored on a sac fly to tie the game, but the big damage to Fedde was done in the fourth, when two singles, a walk and a three-run blast by Tyler Stephenson made it 8-4 Reds.
Light rain started falling in the fifth, and the Sox made it pour on two Reds relievers, cutting the deficit to 8-5 on a clutch RBI single by Edgar Quero, who had a great day challenging pitches even if his teammates didn’t.
In came Tanner McDougal for his major league debut in the sixth. He got Elly De La Cruz to ground out, but then suffered from waaaay too much adrenaline, walking three in a row on 16 pitches and giving Eugenio Suarez, who’d homered in the first, the rare HBP RBI which made it 9-5, Reds.
Things then quieted until the home eighth, when singles by Quero (his third of the day) and Antonacci and a Meidroth walk led to a two-run Andrew Benintendi base hit to cut the lead to 9-7.
The Reds produced another pitcher not sure where the plate might be in the ninth, and the Sox came, oh, so close. Braden Montgomery drew his third walk of the day, but Munetaka Murakami pinch-hit and struck out on balls around his ankles. Colson Montgomery drilled one 105 mph to right but not quite far enough for a warning track out; Quero plated Braden with a single, then Sam Antonacci grounded hard, but balls don’t often get by De La Cruz, and that was that.
White Sox pitchers still managed to issue more walks than the Reds staff, six to five, and also hit three batters — by odd coincidence, the three who had homers. Both sides tossed a whole lot of hanging breaking pitches and middle-of-the-plate fastballs when they weren’t issuing free passes. Blame it on the rain if you like.
Losing the series to the Reds makes the White Sox 62-58 on the year, and they head to Detroit with a 2 1/2-game lead on the Tigers, who beat the Guardians this afternoon. The Tigers may have traded Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize at the deadline and lost Riley Greene to the IL this week, but they’re somehow 7-3 in their last 10 games.
MVP
Edgar Quero: 3-for-5, R, 2 RBI
Runners-Up
Randal Grichuk: 2-for-3, 3 RBI
Chase Meidroth: 2-for-3, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB, K
Andrew Benintendi: 1-for-2, 2 RBI, K
Sam Antonacci: 2-for-5, 2 R, 2 K
Trevor Richards: 2 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 K
Cold Cat
Davis Martin: 2 IP, 2 H, 4 R (3 ER), BB, 3 K, 2 HBP
Erick Fedde: 3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 BB, K, L
Tanner McDougal: 1/3 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 3 BB