Chris Sale hit a speed bump on his way to the finish line, but Jose Quintana was in fine form for his penultimate start.
Quintana shook off some bad defense and a bad inning to pick up his ninth win of the season. He found himself in an early 3-0 hole early, but a four-run blitzkrieg in the fifth inning changed Quintana's fortunes, and he pitched into the eighth to hold up his end of the bargain.
Quintana was only partially to blame for the early deficit, and Logan Forsythe was entirely reponsible on the Rays' end. Marcus Semien booted an inning-ending grounder to extend the first inning, after which Forsythe delivered a two-run double. In the fourth, Forsythe hit a solo shot to start a rather loud, but otherwise scoreless inning.
But Jeremy Hellickson, who was on the verge of being exposed with some limp breaking stuff, was shattered by the White Sox offense in the fifth. Semien drew his second walk of the game, then moved to third when Adam Eaton doubled over the head of Ben Zobrist in left. Alexei Ramirez followed by dropping a single into shallow right to score one run, and Jose Abreu scored the other by muscling a single to center, cutting Tampa Bay's lead to 3-2.
After Conor Gillaspie's fielder's choice put runners on the corners, Avisail Garcia drove them both in with a blistered liner that (again) sailed over Zobrist's head, putting the White Sox ahead 4-3.
That's where the score remained, despite some scares on both sides.
In the sixth, Semien led off with a double, then made a clean break on a line drive that barely cleared Yunel Escobar's glove. He anticipated getting the green light, only to find out too late that Joe McEwing was holding him all the way, and Evan Longoria cut off the throw and tagged Semien before he could dive back for the second out.
Semien found himself in another unusual situation in the seventh. WIth two outs and Kevin Kiermaier on first, Ben Zobrist hit a pop-up to shallow right field. It should've been Garcia's ball, but he never called off Semien, and Semien couldn't come up with the over-the-shoulder catch. Kiermaier was busting it all the way, but he had a brief bout of indecision between third and home as Semien came up with the ball cleanly. Kiermaier committed to home, but Semien recovered to throw a one-hop strike to Josh Phegley, who had plenty of time to apply to tag and allow Quintana to escape unscathed.
The bullpen ended up covering the five outs Quintana didn't, and Robin Ventura managed the last two innings beautifully. He:
- Used Jake Petricka to face Tampa Bay's toughest righties (Longoria and Wil Myers) in the eighth.
- Waited for Joe Maddon to pinch-hit lefty Matt Joyce for Forsythe, then brought in Eric Surkamp. Maddon then pulled Joyce for Ryan Hanigan, but that's a win for Ventura.
- After Surkamp retired Hanigan to resume the right-handed portion, Ventura went to Zach Putnam for the last two outs.
Putnam recorded them anything but cleanly, pitching around a Yunel Escobar single and a David DeJesus HBP to strike out Kiermaier on three splitters in the dirt.
Bullet points:
*Quintana lowered his ERA to 3.22 with a fine line: 7⅓ IP, 9 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 1 HR
*Semien's day: An error, two walks, a double, a baserunning out and a misplay in right that he covered up.
*Eaton gave Quintana an extra out during his arduous third inning by throwing out Yunel Escobar when he tried going from first to third on a single.
*Ramirez went 3-for-5, and Abreu reached base four times with a single, two walks (one intentional) and an HBP.
*Paul Konerko went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in his return to the lineup.
Record: 70-83 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights