Look, when your starter is scratched shortly before the game time, your chances of winning go down. Tonight ended as a bullennacht for a team that has not had a particularly effective bull pen.
Ryan Pepiot reported fatigue, and in a real sign that everyone knows that this team was cooked, they skipped his start, or at least pushed back. So the rays went with a parade of relievers.
They started with Griffin Jax, who was able to survive a double and a walk thanks to a doubles.
The next man was Mason Montgomery. Montgomery has been one of the confusing disappointments of the season. He had a lot of success from the Minor League; Blonk out in his cup of coffee from 2024 and earned a place in the Bullpen this year. And he has been terrible. His FIP of 3.93 suggests that he should get better results than his 5.67 ERA suggests, but then the era and the FIP are not taken into account with inherited runners he had scored when he has arrived with men on the base.
Anyway, whether he has been very bad or just normally bad plus breakdown is not relevant for tonight’s game, one of his worst. He gave up five points in .2 Innings – you could see that cash really wanted him to get through that second inning, but even he could not stand at a certain point. Montgomery took the game with a 1-0 lead thanks to a Yandy Diaz Homerun, but left with a deficit of 5-1, which later increased to 6-1.
At that time I had more or less given up the game, but the Rays attack made it at least interesting.
Within two points they went into the fifth inning with home runs from Carson Williams and Junior Caminero. They then scored once again in the next inning on the small ball: Richie Palacios ran and stole second, and came home from the single from Hunter Feduccia.
But although scoring five points is often enough for a victory, the overwhelming feeling of this game is one of frustration. The rays had eight hits and started seven free running. Nevertheless, they have opportunities in most innovations, thanks to the grounding in three double games and 12 times strikeouts. The Lowe ‘Brothers’, only the boys on which we count to get runners, broke out seven times.
Take the ninth inning: they seemed ready to score that inning. Gray and Feduccia both pulled walks and Simpson bumped into the score position (which we were all great to spend it to move the runners is a sign of how much Chandler has had a hard time). A runner in third place with Yandy and B Lowe came up seemed a fairly good place to boost a team.
But Diaz turned out, unusually sniffing two throws in the zone. Brandon Lowe followed. Play over.
A final remark about pitching: a compliment for Joe Rock and Cole Sulser who each threw two scoreless innings. Sulser’s outing was helped by an excellent Jake Mangum catch on a fading lining. Strangely enough, the rays used six pitchers on “Bullpen Day” (Baker for just one when Rock got into trouble to pitch his third inning). The White Sox, who went with a traditional starter, used eight pitchers.
#Earnly #comeback #White #Sox #Ray