SPORTS
Guardians embarrassed for second straight night by white-flag White Sox, 7-2
Updated: Jul. 30, 2023, 9:18 a.m.|Published: Jul. 29, 2023, 9:38 p.m.
By Paul Hoynes
CHICAGO -- The White Sox have raised the white flag. They scuttled their own season by trading five veteran pitchers earlier this week.
But it hasn’t stopped them from being a serious pain in the neck to the Guardians. Not only that, but they keep delivering that pain by using Cleveland’s old pitchers.
Friday night it was Touki Toussaint with five scoreless innings. Saturday night Mike Clevinger came off the injured list and threw another five scoreless innings in Chicago’s 7-2 victory.
And let’s not forget Bryan Shaw, Cleveland’s all-time leader in relief appearances. Shaw finished the game with two scoreless innings.
Not even manager Terry Francona’s first ejection of the year could awaken an offense that has scored two runs in its last 19 innings.
Meanwhile, first place in the AL Central keeps calling. The Guards entered Saturday’s game trailing first-place Minnesota by 1 1/2 games. Their 3-0 loss on Friday didn’t really hurt because the Twins lost to the Royals in this disappointing division.
Saturday night’s loss carried no consequence either because the Twins once again lost to the Royals.
But how long will this standoff with mediocrity last? How many opportunities will Cleveland be given?
Chicago’s Tim Anderson sent Logan Allen’s third pitch of the night into the left field bleachers for a 1-0 lead. It was Anderson’s first homer of the season, but the 16th in his career from the leadoff spot.
Allen (4-4, 3.39) allowed five runs on eight hits in six innings. Clevinger (4-4, 3.59) struck out three and allowed two hits in five innings.
Clevinger tipped his glove to Francona in Cleveland’s dugout when he took the mound in the top of the first. Then he went to work dismantling Cleveland’s lineup.
“I always have to pay my respects to Tito,” said Clevinger, 2-0 against Cleveland this year. “But I always want to give it back (beat) to them. It makes it fun.”
The Guardians traded Clevinger to San Diego in 2020.
Chicago tried to stretch the lead to 2-0, but the assist maker, aka Andres Gimenez, stopped that from happening.
Yoan Moncada started the fourth with a walk. Luis Robert Jr. followed with a double to the gap in left center. Moncada tried to score from first, but a strong relay from Steven Kwan and Gimenez cut him down at the plate.
The Guardians’ outfielders call Gimenez the assist maker. “Just get the ball to Gimie and it’ an assist,” center fielder Myles Straw is fond of saying.
Allen worked his way out of trouble in the fourth to keep Chicago’s lead at 1-0. But the White Sox were waiting in the fifth.
Yasmani Grandal opened with a single. Oscar Colas popped out to second, but Zach Remillard and Anderson singled to load the bases. Jose Ramirez saved a run with a diving stop against Anderson, but couldn’t make a play.
Moncada followed with a two-run single to center for a 3-0 lead.
Chicago made it 5-0 on a two-run homer by Andrew Vaughn off Allen in the sixth. It was the 10th homer Allen has allowed this year.
The White Sox added two more runs off Eli Morgan in the seventh. He has allowed just 13 earned runs this season.
“I don’t think Allen was too bad,” said bench coach DeMarlo Hale, who talked to the media after the game in place of Francona. “You think about it, he got hurt on his fastball up on the solo home run to Anderson and the home run to Vaughn.
“Really the big blow was the two-run single by Moncada in the the fith.”
An RBI single by Tyler Freeman and Josh Bell’s run-scoring double play grounder accounted for Cleveland’s only runs.
“You look up at our numbers,” said Hale. “We had nine hits and scored two runs. They basically out-played us.”
Francona was ejected for the 15th time as Cleveland’s manager and the 48th time in his career.
After Kwan singled to start the game, Ramirez sent a liner toward the line in left that Remillard appeared to catch. Kwan, who was nearly at second base, tried to get back to first, but was doubled off on a close play.
The Guardians wanted to challenge Remillard’s catch and the out call at first, but their 15 seconds expired. Francona came onto the field to argue with Tichenor, but was quickly ejected.
“To me 15 seconds makes it tough,” said Hale. “You have two plays you’re trying to review. Barnie (Mike Barnett, replay coordinator) was on the one whether he caught it or not. He was rolling over, was the ball coming out? Then you check first to see if he (Kwan) beat the throw.
“I just don’t think 15 second is enough to check both. He (Tichenor) said he didn’t get the challenge in time.”
Next: RHP Aaron Civale (4-2, 2.54) vs. RHP Michael Kopech (4-8, 4.29) Sunday at 2:10 p.m. ET. Bally Sports Great Lakes, WTAM, WMMS and the Guardians radio network will carry the game.
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Three Cubans in that lineup that I'd love to have. I was touting them while they were still performing at their jobs in Cuba's Series Nationale. They are Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert, and Oscar Colas. They were all recruited by Jose Abreu to play in Chicago. There were others but that's a story for another day. Money was always an issue I guess.
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