Cardinals embarrass White Sox 14-2; Fowler, Wong add insult to injuries

The whole Dylan Covey experiment was fun — until it wasn’t.

The frustrations continued Tuesday night when Covey unraveled in the third inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, setting the stage for another Chicago White Sox blowout loss, 14-2.

The righthander had four strikeouts through two innings, but lost his rhythm after getting the first two outs in the third.

His 10.0 H/9 certainly didn’t improve after allowing four straight hits that resulted in two runs to cross the plate that inning. Marcell Ozuna and Jose Martinez took advantage of Covey getting too much of the plate on their RBI singles.

The Sox did get both those runs back in the bottom of the inning on a Charlie Tilson two-RBI single. Tilson squared around to bunt earlier in the at-bat, which was a bit odd to me because of how well he is handling the bat. Why give up an out with a contact hitter on a bunt that early in the game when you could maximize his opportunity by swinging away? But it all worked out for Tilson in that at-bat.

Covey then gave up another run in the fourth, and it could have easily been more. Kolten Wong doubled to right field, but a nice relay from Leury Garcia, Tim Anderson and Omar Narvaez nailed Yairo Munoz at the plate. That was the highlight of the game, because the Sox couldn’t get anything going on offense after Tilson’s double.

Covey finished the night going five-plus innings, giving up four earned runs on nine hits and two walks. He showed glimpses early of his early June self, but couldn’t put everything together.

And how about that White Sox bullpen? Oh boy, was it out in full force tonight. Jace Fry’s ERA rose above 4.00 with two more earned runs, while Bruce Rondon allowed three earned runs in only ¹⁄₃ of an inning. Hector Santiago went 3 ¹⁄₃, giving up four earned runs on two home runs. Yeah, not pretty.

The Sox fall to 30-61, while the Cardinals improve to 47-43.

Hey, at least lesser-known prospect Bernardo Flores went seven innings in Double-A tonight for the Birmingham Barons.