The White Sox pulled off a wild 4-3 victory on Tuesday night. With the score tied in the ninth Nick Williams hit what looked like an inning ending double play ball. Instead, Cleveland Indians first baseman Yu Chang threw the ball off of Yasmani Grandal's helmet. The ball ricocheted into left field allowing Nick Madrigal slide home for the winning run. While that whacky play will grab all the headlines the bullpen played the role of unsung hero of the night.
This was exactly the type of bounce back performance the White Sox needed. Their bullpen currently ranks 20th in the MLB with a 4.99 ERA. They have blown a total of four saves already this season. On Sunday Liam Hendriks allowed a game tying homer in the ninth inning, blowing his first save opportunity in his new home. After the game Hendriks talked about what the White Sox needed to do to get back on track.
"We set lofty goals for ourselves in spring training, seeing the group that is in here, and unfortunately, we didn’t get off to the start we needed. When that happens, you start to overanalyze, put way too much pressure on yourself, try to live up to what everyone said. And when it doesn’t happen, it just snowballs. So right now we need to go back to Square 1 as a group and take it game by game."
The White Sox took Hendriks words to heart on Monday. This was the first step in getting this elite unit back on track. Tony La Russa has not lost confidence in his guys either. With plenty of power arms available to him, ten games is too soon to bail on this bullpen. Micheal Kopech and Garrett Crochet have emerged as super weapons out of the pen. Evan Marshall and Codi Heur showed what they are capable of when firing on all cylinders. It is up to the rest of the guys to follow suit.
Best Version Of Bullpen
Dallas Kuechel had a gutsy five inning performance. While 5.0 innings, 3 runs, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts does not jump off the page, it is a very good performance when you consider the context. Carlos Rodon was scheduled to start but was ruled out with a stomach flu. Keuchel came to the ballpark not expecting to start and had virtually no time to prepare, outside of an extended bullpen session. In the sixth inning he left the game with a 3-2 lead, but had loaded the bases with nobody out. Evan Marshall was called upon to clean up the mess. Marshall did an excellent job minimizing the damage. He struck out the Indians most dangerous hitter Jose Ramirez, and only allowing one run to score on a Franmil Reyes sacrifice fly.
Marshall opened the seventh inning by punching out Amed Rosario on strikes before giving way to Aaron Bummer. The usually reliable Bummer had another bad outing putting runners on first and second. Codi Heur was assigned to escape the jam and he did just that by striking out Jordan Luplow. Heuer, who had thrown four pitches the previous day against the Royals had a career day.
He posted a career high four strikeouts and pitched 2 1/3 without giving up a run. The biggest moment in the game came in the ninth inning. With the score still tied and a runner on second he seemingly struck out Roberto Perez to end the inning. However the ball popped out of Yasmani Grandal's glove on the transfer and it was ruled a foul ball. This is the type of bad break that has cost the White Sox this season. But Heur responded by blowing another pitch past Perez in the ultimate 'ball don't lie' strikeout.
Back To Square One
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