South Side hurlers allowed 10 walks while the offense took the night off after back-to-back homers in the first
The Chicago White Sox once again lost a game where they had the lead, losing 7-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers. The pitching staff was a bit of a disaster on Tuesday, walking 10 batters compared to nine strikeouts. Sure, two walks were intentional, but that is simply way too many free passes either way. The fact that the South Siders left six runners on base and had only four hits also did not help their cause.
Lately, the White Sox have been really into using an opener to start games rather than heavily relying on a starting pitcher — especially while Marín Pérez is (and will remain) on the IL. In their defense, nothing else is working, so why not try it?
Tyler Gilbert made the opening “start” for the South Siders and slung 36 pitches in his two innings of work, walking one and striking out three. Gilbert allowed just one hit, but naturally, that one hit was Isaac Collins’ first MLB homer, which gave the Brewers an early one-run advantage. His outing was otherwise pretty solid, and he has been K-ing batters out at a high 35.5% strikeout rate all year.
In a wild turn of events, the Good Guys actually answered back in the bottom of the first, and in a big way: back-to-back bombs from Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr. to take the lead, 2-1. Andrew Vaughn followed up the (very brief) slugfest with a single that came off the bat at 106.7 mph, which was the hardest hit ball outside of Robert’s home run.
Hard-hit balls from Andrew Vaughn or not, let it be known that we are still overdue for Tim Elko being called up to the big league club.
Bryse Wilson came on in relief of Gilbert, and he looked solid for the first three innings of his outing, but he struggled with the base on balls — walking three but only striking out one in his 3 1⁄3 innings. He didn’t give up a hit until a swinging bunt sent the game off the rails in the sixth. Wilson gave up the lead prior to exiting the game, and left Brandon Eisert with a mess on the base paths. Eisert gave up two hits, and three more runs crossed the plate, with two being charged to Wilson, including an RBI hit-by-pitch to take the lead. It’s the White Sox way.
Edgar Quero did what he could to stop baserunners from his position behind the plate and limit the damage, throwing out Brice Turang who attempted to steal in the fifth, and nearly throwing out another runner in the sixth, but shortstop Jacob Amaya wasn’t able to handle the ball.
The White Sox offense was also nowhere to be found, and Freddy Peralta recovered just fine after the first. Until Miguel Vargas got a base hit in the bottom of the seventh, the bats were as good as dead. And they weren’t able to score after that, either.
The bullpen was floundering without the run support, and they weren’t helping themselves with all the free bases between the walks (five) and hit-by-pitches (two). They got into bases-loaded jams in the seventh and eighth, and Mike Vasil was able to work his way out of it by striking out Christian Yelich to end the seventh. Vasil is at a 1.10 ERA on the year, and is one of the tiny bright spots of the White Sox bullpen thus far.
Jared Shuster didn’t have as much luck, however. Two more runs scored in the eighth without the ball even leaving the infield; one on an error from Miguel Vargas, and another on a fielder’s choice where Lenyn Sosa had no other play but to get the out at first. This put the Brewers up 7-2, which felt even more insurmountable for the Sox.
Penn Murfee entered the game for the 14th time this season, and it went about as well as his 8.71 ERA would have you expect. Once again, the walks continue to plague the White Sox pitching staff. Murfee retired the first batter of the frame on one pitch, and then walked two straight batters to make things dicey once again. Thankfully, he worked out of it, but his WHIP will surely take a hit as it surpasses the 2.00 mark.
In a very predictable ninth inning, the Sox went three-up, three-down to end the game and drop the first of three to the Brewers. Shane Smith is set to make his sixth start of the season, and has been a breath of fresh air on a team — and pitching staff — who could really use one.