If you love pitching and defense, this was the perfect game for you. Then again, there was not much need for defense in this contest as Drew Rasmussen and four relievers struck out 16 White Sox while scattering five singles in this 1-0 victory. This was a tremendous and needed bounceback from last night’s contest when the White Sox clubbed four home runs in their 6-1 victory.
The only run of the game came from Mr. July, Nick Fortes, who fought off some high heat from Noah Schultz to hit one over Chase Meidroth to drive in Jonny DeLuca from second:
DeLuca stole a base to get into scoring position for that single, but also made a great catch for the first out in the 4th inning to keep Munetaka Murekami at first base instead of multiple runners with nobody out:
Rasmussen had his third consecutive strong outing after the two hiccups to start July. His 10 strikeouts were his best total since the 13 strikeouts gagainst Boston on June 10th and gives him 24 strikeouts and 3 walks over his last three starts. Rasmussen kept the White Sox off-balance with a varied recipe of pitches. The first time through, Rasmussen threw just two changeups on the 47 pitches required to get through the lineup. However, the changeup and sinker took center stage to keep the young hitters off balance. There was a stretch in this contest where Chicago was making solid contact, but Rasmussen adjusted by simply striking out the side in the 6th before he exited the game. Cam Booser came in to force manager Will Venable to use his bench in the 7th, but the trio of hitters after Randal Grichuk’s bloop single in the 7th also went down swinging.
Kevin Kelly came in for an impressive appearance on the heels of him striking out the side against Texas on Wednesday. Kelly picked up a strikeout of Chase Meidroth and Sam Antonacci around a flyout by Quero. Meidroth has had his share of strikeouts this season, but Antonacci is the best contact hitter on the Chicago roater with a 15.4% strikeout rate. Kelly has now pitched to a 0.65 ERA across 27.2 innings under the roof as a key piece of the bridge to Bryan Baker. Kelly gave way to Garrett Cleavinger to face Munetaka Murakami, and the at bat was vintage Cleavinger. The second pitch was upheld by ABS and Murekami was on the defensive after swinging through a 1-1 sweeper. It was the last pitch Murekami would see near the strike zone, yet he could not lay off three consecutive pitches and went down chasing another sweeper:
Bryan Baker came in for his 31st save, albeit with two very close calls. Miguel Vargas sabotaged a first pitch low fastball that took Chandler Simpson to the warning track. Randal Grichuk was the last out of the game, but not before he was just out in front of a hanging changeup that he hit just foul down the line before swinging through a fastball to end the game. Baker only threw six pitches, but his velocity was down in this outing and will likely be absent from the bullpen usage on Sunday for a much-needed day off:
Baker has pitched four times in seven games, but this six-pitch appearance was just what the doctor ordered after him needing 20+ pitches in each of his other appearances this week.
The story behind the story in this game was a challenging strike zone by Alfonso Marquez who had nine calls challenged by the team, and was 1 for his first 6 before winning his last three challenges:
This game was the 10th shutout by the Rays with four of those coming over the last seven games. The club is now 29-3 at home when scoring first in the game and now hand the ball to Griffin Jax to win the series before the club takes off for Colorado after the game.
