Red Sox 4, White Sox 1: Homers hurt Shields

Tonight's game started off well for the White Sox as Tim Anderson lead it off with his 10th home run of 2017. Unfortunately, James Shields didn't make that lead last as Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr. both smashed two-run homers as the Red Sox won, 4-1.

All of the scoring happened in the first two innings, with Anderson and Benintendi hitting their homers in the first, and Bradley Jr. in the second. After that, Shields was able to make enough adjustments to last six innings. His final line is decent: 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K.

Drew Pomeranz got into a rhythm after Anderson's blast. Keeping White Sox hitters uncomfortable with his breaking pitches. Winning his 11th game of 2017, Pomeranz finished with 7 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K.

A couple of takeaways from tonight's game.

• Derek Holland pitched out of the bullpen. Set to start on Tuesday against the Houston Astros, Holland faced just one batter which was Brock Holt, and he flew out to left field. I'm still expecting Holland to make a start on Tuesday, but maybe tonight was a bit of an audition for contending teams still looking for bullpen help.
• Late TOOTBLANs. My oh my, Alen Hanson and Leury Garcia. In the seventh inning with runners on first and second, Tim Anderson hit a shallow fly ball to Mookie Betts in right field. Betts caught the ball cleanly and quickly threw out Hanson who was way off first base. Hawk Harrelson on the broadcast made a point that was due to Hanson not knowing where the outfielders were positioned. Then the next inning, Leury Garcia attempted a steal to second base but Nicky Delmonico fouled off the 0-2 pitch. On the ensuing pitch, Craig Kimbrel picks Garcia off at first base for the second out. Oh, and Jose Abreu was thrown out trying to stretch a line drive off the Green Monster into a double in the eighth. I don’t really count that as a TOOTBLAN because of the effort of trying to make something happen, but I won’t argue too much if you want to count it as the third mistake on the base path.

Since July 1st, the White Sox are 6-23 and outscored 173 to 101.

Record: 41-67 | Box Score