White Sox 8, Brewers 3: Solid win feels secondary

As I mentioned in the gamethread, the big story tonight was Danny Farquhar’s recovery and return to the ballpark to throw out the first pitch. He was surrounded by his wife and three children, his teammates, and the Rush doctors and staff that treated him. He got a great welcome from the crowd and threw a strike to Nate Jones. It was a beautiful moment, and it will certainly be one of the top highlights of 2018 when all is said and done.

That said, there was baseball tonight too. Ryan Braun hit a two-run bomb to right-center in the first, and the Brewers pushed it to 3-0 with a sacrifice fly in the third. The White Sox came back with three in the bottom of the third inning. Adam Engel started it off by roping a double down the left field line, and Charlie Tilson singled to drive him in and stole second. Trayce Thompson grounded to third, but Travis Shaw made a wild throw into the dugout. Then Yoan Moncada singled to score Thompson and tie the game, but he got caught in a rundown between first and second.

With two on and two out and the game tied 3-3 in the sixth, Craig Counsell called on Matt Albers to face Tim Anderson. Timmy hit a sinking liner into left field, and Christian Yelich got too aggressive in trying to catch it. It bounced it front of him and then past him, and both runners scored on what the official scorer (perhaps generously) called a triple. Omar Narvaez then hit a grounder that found the hole on the right side, and that made it 6-3.

Hector Santiago had a wild night, walking five batters and striking out only one over 3⅓ innings. He escaped with only three runs allowed, as the Brewers stranded eight runners in the first four frames. Chris Volstad relieved Santiago and contributed 2⅓ scoreless innings with just one walk allowed. The Santiago-Volstad piggyback continues to work, even if it would be nice to consolidate the fifth half-starters into a single roster spot.

From there, the bullpen completely shut down a solid offensive ballclub. Luis Avilan got the last out of the sixth, and Joakim Soria, Bruce Rondon, and Nate Jones each pitched in a scoreless inning. All in all, it was 5⅔ innings from the relievers with nary a hit allowed—an outstanding performance from Farquhar’s pen mates. The Sox tacked on two more runs in the seventh with two doubles and two singles. Jose Abreu was thrown out at home to end the inning (by the second baseman from right field), but Yolmer Sanchez scored in front of him to make it 8-3 and the Sox coasted to a win.

The White Sox pushed to 17-37, and with the Cubs’ win in Queens, the Brewers’ NL Central lead slips to three games.

Other Stuff

• Nick Hostetler spent the entire third inning in the booth, getting very into the inner workings of the draft, like bonus pools, player boards, scouting, and the concept of drafting best player available.
• Three former White Sox relievers pitched for the Brewers tonight: Boone Logan, Matt Albers, and Dan Jennings.
• Tim Anderson had a nice defensive night, getting a couple of close forces at second and making a rangy play up the middle in the eighth.