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In one of its highest-attended games of the season, the Chicago White Sox turned in one of their worst offensive efforts.
The Sox gave a crowd of 29,281 not a whole lot to cheer about.
The Brewers got their first run in the third on an Erik Kratz home run. Kratz pulled his hands in and hooked it around the left field foul pole for the early lead.
James Shields cruised along after that, not giving up a run until the seventh inning. He threw a rolling breaking ball to Jonathan Villar that ended up in the right field seats for a solo homer.
Shields came out for the eighth inning but allowed a solo shot to White Sox killer Lorenzo Cain to lead off the inning. That closed the book on Shields, who turned in yet another solid performance.
Shields finished the day going 7+, allowing three earned runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out six. Not much more to say about Shields other than he’s been pretty darn good in his last seven outings. During that time, Shields has gone at least six innings and has lowered his ERA to 4.48 (it was at 6.14 on April 25).
Big Game James also got out of two different jams with a runner on third and nobody out.
Jace Fry relieved Shields and had his roughest outing of his season. Jesus Aguilar unloaded on a fastball down the middle and deposited it into the right field bleachers for a two-run homer off Fry.
The Sox had a promising start to the ninth inning, getting a soft single from Jose Abreu and a double from Jose Rondon. But two pop outs and a strike out closed the door on any sort of hopes for the unlikeliest comeback of all time.
The Brewers improve to 37-22 (!), while the Sox drop to 17-38. Brent Suter goes for the Brew Crew tomorrow, while the Sox send Dylan Covey to the mound in the rubber match.