Astros 2, White Sox 1: Welp

Jason and Gordon were back on the game tonight. Jason was really feeling some Rebecca Black:

The White Sox drew first blood in the top of the first when Brian Goodwin was brought in by José Abreu on a one-out single. He ended up stranded on the basepaths (along with Yoán Moncada) but it was a better start than yesterday. Also unlike yesterday, the White Sox managed to blank Houston’s offense in the bottom of the first and went 1-2-3. Baby steps today, everyone.

Carlos Rodón also started off throwing some nasty pitches.

He kept the Astros shut out through the fifth. The nice thing about Rodón’s pitching is that while he is trying to strike out the batter, he’s not selling out for the K; putting balls into play and allowing the defense to do their jobs is a good thing, too.

The sequence in the fifth could best be described as “yikes”:

The walk to Martin Maldonado brought Yordan Alvarez around to score. In the pressure situation of facing off against Jose Altuve with bases loaded, Rodón tossed six pitches to get the big strikeout. He was back firing on all cylinders for the bottom of the sixth and went 1-2-3 with a ground out, strikeout, and fly out. Unfortunately for Rodón, that bases-loaded walk kept him from a win.

Codi Heuer came in the bottom of the eighth for relief and mowed down three in a row to keep the score all tied up. However, for reasons passing understanding Tony La Russa brought Garrett Crochet in to pitch during the ninth. He gave up a single to Gurriel, and Alvarez came up and hit one to the right field corner, scoring Gurriel.

Thank God Jerry is paying Liam Hendriks $54 million to sit in the bullpen and play with LEGOs for the next three years.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Colleen, come on. It’s not all Tony’s fault.” You’re right, dear reader, it’s not all Tony’s fault. The offense was asleep at the wheel and Rodón shouldn’t have walked in a run, but at the same time what is the point of paying Hendriks a buttload of money and locking him up for three years to use him sparingly? What are we waiting for, the possibility of a 10th inning?

Anyway, this loss was even more irritating than yesterday’s because it came down to a lot of little things adding up. So now, everyone go get your rest — we’re back at it again tomorrow, an hour earlier, and hopefully the White Sox remember that to win games you have to score more runs than the other guys and actually use your brain when it comes to calling in relievers from the bullpen.

Tweets for when the game sucks

Special shoutout to South Side Sox’s Super Joe Resis for reminding everyone that Indianapolis has White Sox fans on today’s episode of #SoxMath.

[Story from the editor that Joe would be too polite to share himself: Joe went for a walk during the game, and one of the restaurants nearby just happened to have the game on TV, and the timing lined up very well, so he stood there for like a minute and watched through a window. Yes, Joe won #SoxMath just strolling down the street and window-shopping the question; he didn’t even plan on playing #SoxMath yesterday. So he’s 1-for-1 this year when playing without his usual home-setup delay.]