White Sox sunk by Mariners, 3-2

It was a two-day game with a piece of misery, a piece of history, and an ending that got Trammelled underfoot.

Lest you’ve forgotten, today’s action began in the middle of the third, zip-zip after three nice innings from Lance Lynn and very unnice weather from Mother Nature.

To get the misery out of the way first, in the sixth, José Abreu got hit in the side of his left knee by a 96 mph fastball from Mariner reliever J.T. Chargois and collapsed on the ground, writhing in pain. When José Abreu writhes in pain, you know it’s pretty damned serious. José was helped off the field limping, but X-rays were negative, so it’s only a bruise — if a bruise that bad can be called “only.”

As for the history, when Hector Santiago — yes, that Hector Santiago — left the game in the fifth, having been the first pitcher of day two of the game that was suspended Saturday, he went through the new routine of glove and hat inspection, and the umpires found something they didn’t like in his glove. Moments later, he became the first pitcher ejected under the new crackdown on sticky stuff. What the umps found is unknown at this point (Santiago confirms he was ejected for having rosin on his glove hand, apparently not permitted), as is any appeal process, but as it stands, Santiago is on a 10-day suspension and the Mariners can’t replace him on the 26-man, which becomes a 25-man, except for Sunday’s second game, which would have been a 27-man, except now it’s a 26-man. Hope you kept track of that.

Quinn Harris/Getty Images

Guess we can’t put off the game itself any longer, the seventh loss in eight games for the White Sox. It came down to the ninth inning, which started with a 2-2 tie. Our HOFBP didn’t mess around this time and brought in Liam Hendricks to make sure Sox would at least go to the bottom of the ninth tied.

Only then, Hendricks shook off a fastball call and went to a slider to Taylor Trammell:

That was Trammell’s second dinger of the day, the first coming off Dallas Keuchel — who had been Chicago’s first reliever, or second starter, depending on how you look at it. And you know how when a player makes a great catch, he always comes up the next inning and has a big hit? Well, apparently it works both ways. In the bottom of the ninth, Yasmani Grandal singled, Zack Collins ran for him (why? instead of batting for Yermín Mercedes against a righty? who knows?), and Jake Lamb crushed a ball to left-center.

Yep, that was Trammell. Sorry to show Mariners highlights, but you go with what you’ve got.

Next batter was Mercedes, facing a righty. Yep — 5-4-3, and that was the game.

Keuchel, making what was technically his first relief appearance since 2015, and first regular-season one since 2013, got hit pretty hard over his five innings despite a strike zone the size of Jupiter, but escaped with just two solo homers, thanks in part to Tim Anderson and Leury García doing a little web-gemming of their own to save him in the fourth:

As for offense, after Trammell’s first homer in the fifth, García tied it in the bottom half with a single driving in Grandal, and after a Ty France solo shot made it 2-1 in the sixth, Grandal tied it up with a sac fly.

So, fairly typical offense for the last two weeks.

It’ll take a win in the seven-inning nightcap to avoid a sweep at home. Thank goodness for being in the AL Central.

You see the big “HELP” sign, Rick?