White Sox 4, Dodgers 0: Pollock haunts former team

In a game that remained scoreless for quite some time, the White Sox (26-27) broke the ice first in a convincing victory over the mighty Dodgers (35-20).

White Sox starter Michael Kopech made an excellent recovery from his previous start, a 7-3 loss to Toronto. While the Dodgers have a star-studded lineup that leads the league in runs per game (5.4 entering this game), Kopech was more than up to the challenge.

Kopech retired the first eight Dodgers he faced, striking out five. Gavin Lux, who drew a walk with two outs in the third, was the first Dodger to reach base safely. Lux stole second, but Kopech pitched out of the minor jam by getting Mookie Betts to pop out. The first and only Dodger to get a hit against Kopech was Will Smith, who singled with the bases empty and two outs in the fourth. Unsurprisingly, Kopech kept Smith’s wife’s name out of his mouth, and pitched around that single.

Unfortunately, Mitch White, who started for Los Angeles, went nearly toe-to-toe with Kopech. In fact, White retired the first 12 batters he faced. During White’s first four innings, he was incredibly efficient, as he only threw 48 pitches. The South Siders finally challenged White in the bottom of the fifth. That inning opened up with a single by José Abreu. After a force out hit by Gavin Sheets, a hit by pitch to Jake Burger, and a single by Yoán Moncada, the bases were loaded with one out. That brought up two recent acquisitions in Reese McGuire and Josh Harrison. Did either of them come through in the clutch to give the White Sox the lead? Of course not. McGuire was called out on a 3-2 fastball that caught a decent chunk of the plate, and Harrison struck out on four pitches.

The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the sixth, when L.A. righthander Phil Bickford relieved White on the mound. Danny Mendick led off with an infield single, but after back-to-back fly outs, it appeared as though it would be another scoreless inning. However, Abreu extended the inning with a single to put runners on the corners, and David Price took over on the mound.

Price had an evening that he would like to forget as soon as possible. AJ Pollock, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Sheets, was the first batter to face Price. Pollock, the former Dodger, had a chance to break the ice — and he wasted no time doing so.

Just like that, the White Sox had a 2-0 lead, and they were not done. On the very next pitch, Price threw a changeup to Burger’s liking, and Burger crushed a sharp liner (111.7 mph exit velocity) down the left-field line to make it 3-0.

McGuire continued the slugfest against Price with an RBI single to extend the South Siders’ lead to four.

From there, the arm barn took care of the rest. Reynaldo López ran into some trouble in the seventh, but the Dodgers could not capitalize. After a leadoff single by Trea Turner, Smith grounded into a double play to remove the threat. Justin Turner kept the inning alive with an infield single, and Aaron Bummer came on to rescue López. Although Bummer issued a walk, he struck out Hanser Alberto to end the inning. Kendall Graveman delivered a scoreless eighth inning, and the ninth, which Liam Hendriks pitched, was also drama-free.

This marked the White Sox’s third win in a row. They will try to extend their win streak to four and return to .500 tomorrow at 7:10 p.m. Central. Johnny Cueto and Tony Gonsolin are the probable starting pitchers. Once again, the Dodgers will be the opponent, NBC Sports Chicago will televise the game, and WMVP 1000 AM will have the radio coverage. Hannah LaMotta, Zach Hayes and Chrystal O’Keefe will provide our coverage. See you then.