If you had told me about six weeks ago how disappointed I would be at the Sox losing a 4-3 nailbiter and failing to complete a series sweep against one of the National League’s better teams, I probably would’ve told you that it was a good thing.
And I would be correct! While today’s tight 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Padres was certainly a frustrating one to watch, it speaks volumes that I actually expected them to have a chance to win, even after falling behind in the middle innings. They aren’t exactly the Cardiac Bears of this past fall, but if this game gave me anything, it’s that the late innings of a close game are no longer completely futile for the White Sox.
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That might seem like backhanded praise, but when it comes to the post-2021 White Sox there haven’t been many avenues for giving them credit without a healthy dollop of criticism. What may seem like a baseline to many other franchises — still hanging around .500 as we get close to a third of the way through the season — seems like excellence to us. That might be embarrassing to some degree, but then again, if you care about being embarrassed, the White Sox are unequivocally the wrong team to get behind.
As has been much the case lately, pitching wasn’t much to blame for today’s tally in the loss column. At the same time, we’re getting to the point in the season where it becomes easy to understand who exactly you do or do not want on the mound at any given time. And as stellar as the Sox pitching staff has been as of late, Griffin Canning gave the kind of performance that would likely make fans wish the South Siders had landed him to fill out the back of their rotation rather than Anthony Kay. Kay has had his moments, and he’s giving the team a chance to win, but after a bit less than a month and a half of play, it seems clear that even a highly successful campaign across the Pacific isn’t quite enough to make a pitcher who can actually get through a big league lineup more than twice.
To be fair, Kay did hold serve plenty well early on, keeping San Diego off the board long enough for backup catcher Drew Romo to continue his best Seby Zavala impression and get the Sox offense rolling early.
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Unfortunately, the lefty then provided another few reminders of why it’s been a few years since he consistently threw the ball in an American time zone, as he wasted little time in giving the lead back up thanks to two homers within a span of three plate appearances to homers from Miguel Andujar and San Diego’s third baseman, who Sox fans might be familiar with as the cousin of franchise legend Jon Jay and brother-in-law of noted Chicago slugger Yonder Alonso.
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Canning was locked in after Romo’s dinger, but Sox hitters managed to get him out of their faces after five innings. At that point they were confronted with lefthander Adrián Morejón, who probably made them wish they were still facing Canning given Morejón’s bevy of 100 mph sinkers against which Sox hitters had virtually no chance.
There was one member of the Sox who seemed unfazed by Morejón’s electric stuff, as Derek Hill reminded us all that he’s more than a defensive replacement by smashing a home run to deep left-center field to tie things up at three in the seventh inning.
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That’s when Jordan Leasure came into the game. While I have been a fan of Leasure since his acquisition, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to deny that the man is simply not the candidate for holding leads or preserving close games. On this day, however, Leasure did his job. It was the combo of righty Tyler Davis and lefty Bryan Hudson — both of whom have admittedly been outstanding, to this point — that did the damage in this one. Davis allowed the first runs of his big league career at a rather inopportune time, allowing a walk and a pair of singles in a manner that gave Xander Bogaerts the chance to put the Padres ahead with just a few outs to play.
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It goes without saying that given the presence of Mason Miller, the Padres are probably the last team in the league you want to be playing a close game against in the late innings. Although the Sox did manage to scratch across a baserunner thanks to Tristan Peters poking a scrappy single to right field, that was all the ink the Sox had in their pen this series. Miller had little trouble retiring everyone else he faced to secure a win for the Friars.
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The squad will be staying out west for the rest of the week, as they now head north to Anaheim for another three-game set with the Angels. We’ll see you for that one tomorrow night, at 8:38 p.m. Central time!
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