1. Pinch-runner Carlos Sanchez was beaten by a strong throw home from left fielder Christian Yelich, as he tried to score the tying run in the top of the ninth after Tyler Saladino singled with two outs. The throw to catcher Jeff Mathis dragged him a bit up the third base line a bit, which prompted a necessary review of whether he was blocking the plate, and nearly immediately resulted in Sanchez being ruled out despite some indication that the ball came loose in Mathis’ glove.

The play at the plate covered up a roiling last-second rally the Sox cooked up against Francisco Rodney. Down 5-3 with one out, Tim Anderson turned and burned on an inside fastball for his sixth home run of the season. Omar Narvaez followed it by immediately lining a single to left, and was lifted for Sanchez. Pinch-hitter Justin Morneau complicated things by fouling off a high Rodney changeup before striking out, but Adam Eaton drilled a single to right and setup Saladino to be the hero, which he was the difference in speed between Anderson and Sanchez from being.

2. The Sox found themselves in the deficit after Chris Sale‘s mediocre outing declined to downright bad in the seventh. A No. 4 starter that stumbles his way into the seventh with a mediocre slider and shaky fastball command probably would have gotten pulled and thanked for surviving with only three runs allowed, but Sale batted for himself in the top of the seventh.

When Adeiny Hechavarria reached to leadoff the inning on a bang-bang play on an infield single, it smacked of bad luck, but nicking Ichiro Suzuki on the hand on a 2-2 count was a fair bit worse. Tasked with his third jam of the game, Sale floated another slider across the plate that Martin Prado hammered to right to put the Marlins ahead 4-3. Sale was replaced by Jacob Turner with two outs to face Marcell Ozuna, who had crushed Sale all game. While Turner got a weak grounder out of the showdown, Jose Abreu couldn’t scoop the low throw from Todd Frazier, allowing a fifth run to score…which…became important later.

3. Sale found himself in a jam in the second inning, with runners on second and third with no one out, but powered up against the bottom of the order to strike out Robert Andino and Mathis before escaping the inning unscathed. That was the last great flourish from him.

He allowed Andino, Mathis and Hechavarria to single consecutively off of him to lead off the fifth. With the bases loaded and no one out, Sale was at least granted a reprieve by starting pitcher Tom Koehler, but split the plate on 1-2 with a fastball that Koehler lined back to the mound, where it struck Sale’s foot on a short hop and kicked over Anderson’s head while two runs scored to tie the game at 2-2. Suzuki did Sale another favor by dropping a bunt, but Sale fell asleep and failed to cover home while Hechavarria circled around third and scored to put the Marlins ahead.

4. For a solid five minutes, the Sox looked like they would walk away easily with a sweep. Eaton ripped the first pitch of the game off the right field foul pole, two batters later Melky Cabrera similarly ripped a pitch into the right-center, and came around to score when Abreu reached down and poked an RBI single to right. Four batters in and they were staked to a 2-0 lead with Chris Sale on the hill. Things seemed alright.

5. Any happiness for the Marlins’ playoff push produced by this game was probably stomped out by the report that Giancarlo Stanton will likely miss the rest of the season.

Team Record: 56-61

Next game is Tuesday at Cleveland on CSN at 6:10pm CT

Lead Image Credit: Steve Mitchell // USA Today Sports

1. As Dariel is still very young, it’s time to start learning life lessons: like having the first taste of the sardonic pleasure of harming the playoff hopes of another team; especially a team owned by Jeffrey Loria. After the Sox put 14 men on base in five innings against the newly-acquired Andrew Cashner, Loria might want to get back on the phone with San Diego.

While the four runs the Sox scratched across pushed Cashner above a 5.00 ERA for the season–what an acquisition!–and 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position is a pretty good average.

2. But the Sox did manage to hemorrhage runs in fun and interesting ways. Tim Anderson grounded into a double play to kill a bases loaded situation in the first, Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier both chased junk and struck out to spoil another based loaded situation in the second, Melky Cabrera added his own double play in the fourth. For good measure, both Abreu and Frazier managed to get gunned down at the plate as well.

After Abreu singled and Frazier boomed a double off the wall to lead off the fifth, Abreu was thrown out easily at home on a chopped fielder’s choice from J.B. Shuck. And though Frazier would score that inning off an Anderson sacrifice fly, he was called out on a close play in the seventh after Omar Narvaez laced a singled through the right side of the infield.

Still scratching out four runs after possibly costing themselves four via random goofups is the mark of a good offense, but the Sox are not a good offense, so who knows what to do with this result?

3. Carlos Rodon delivered six one-run innings for his second-straight quality start, but the control and the wondrous stretches of his superlative night against the Orioles last weekend. Left-hander Christian Yelich was comically overwhelmed by his slider, and gave Rodon three of his four strikeouts, with the other coming on a 96 mph fastball blown by Giancarlo Stanton. If you’re going to only neutralize a small part of the Marlins lineup, that’s a good portion to focus on, but wildness and imprecision–he couldn’t spot his changeup to save his life all night but bless him for trying–forced him into laborious situations.

The Marlins scored their only run off Rodon in a 36-pitch fourth where he allowed Martin Prado to advance on a wild pitch, walked Marcell Ozuna, gave up an RBI single to catcher J.T. Realmuto and got into a 12-pitch war with utility man Miguel Rojas, all when he was just one out from ending the inning. He eventually got Rojas to fly out to left. The 122 pitches he used to get through six innings was a career-high.

4. Walking Adeiny Hechavarria and allowing a double to Ichiro Suzuki did some damage to the veneer of the Ace Reliever Jacob Turner project, but after Dan Jennings allowed a sacrifice fly to bring the game to 4-2 in the seventh, Nate Jones came on to deliver four bulletproof outs and turned over a two-run lead to David Robertson. After two-straight blown saves, Robertson’s knuckle curve was liquefying humans Friday night, and he struck out two in a perfect ninth inning.

5. Among the offensive heroes, Adam Eaton collected four hits in his first four at-bats and scored a run, and Narvaez walked in his first three at-bats and singled in his fourth, and now sits at .444/.600/.500 in 25 plate appearances. Tyler Saladino and Abreu both had two-hit nights, and drove in a run apiece.

So it was a fine victory and felt good and there’s no reason to feel existential dread about anyth–

White Sox 55-60 through 115 games.
Just as they were 55-60 through 115 games in 2015.
Just as they were 55-60 through 115 games in 2014.

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) August 13, 2016

Team Record: 55-60

Next game is Saturday at 6:10pm CT at Miami on CSN

Lead Image Credit: Steve Mitchell // USA Today Sport Images