Guardians 3, White Sox 0: R.I.P. to the offense

Tonight was a boring baseball game, and the best part about it was it didn’t last very long. The Cleveland Guardians took the first of the three-game set in what started out as a pitchers’ duel and ended with the Sox holding their hats and wondering how they missed all those meatballs right over the plate. I thought the iPitch machine was supposed to help the offense on the road, right? If this is what help looks like, let’s leave the device in Chicago next time.

After feasting off of Hunter Gaddis last September, the South Siders only managed two hits and no runs this time around. They didn’t fare any better off the Cleveland bullpen, either, which pitched three shutout innings. The Pale Hose couldn’t get any offense rolling today and only got three lonely hits. Andrew Benintendi did extend his hitting streak to nine games with a double in the top of the fourth. Unfortunately, he was left stranded, as the Sox were 0-for-4 with RISP tonight. Benny also made a few nice defensive plays, which happens when you have actual outfielders playing in the outfield.

Jimmy Lambert opened the contest for the Sox and gave up no runs on one hit and one walk in his sole inning. Jesse Scholtens took the ball in the second and pitched five really solid innings. He surrendered only one run on two hits and two walks, striking out one.

The first run of the game came in the bottom of the second after a leadoff walk to Gabriel Arias came around to score on a single by Will Brennan — that murdered a poor bird — and a wild pitch by Scholtens.

All was quiet until the bottom of the seventh, when Garrett Crochet entered the game. He quickly got Andrés Giménez to ground out but walked Arias. Then, Brennan, the bird killer, grounded out for the second out. Gregory Santos replaced Crochet to face Mike Zunino, who promptly launched a two-run homer to right field to make it 3-0, Guardians. Before the blast, Zunino was 1-for-31 in May, because of course he was. It really didn’t matter, anyway, because that first run was enough to win this one.

A positive takeaway is that Scholtens was good. Even the wild pitch could have easily been a passed ball. Personally, I’d much rather watch him go out every fifth day than [redacted]. A girl can only hope.

The White Sox will be back at it tomorrow. Dylan Cease takes the mound as the Good Guys continue to search for that elusive 20th win.