Sport news: Guardians 2, White Sox 3: That’s two straight, baby.
Tonight, Erick Fedde was amazing. It was his third win and third strong start of the season. The right-hander pitched six innings, giving up just six hits and three strikeouts against no walks. I hate feel-good stories, but if he keeps doing this, he will definitely be a candidate by the deadline. A Hallmark film is in the works as he reinvents himself with the KBO and returns to the bigs. He remained ahead of the hitters tonight, and his cutter was really efficient, producing five whiffs. His stuff performed nicely.
Tonight, Ben Lively of Cleveland was not playing tricks on the White Sox. He was squared up quite early on and couldn’t blow it by anyone, which allowed the Pale Hose to score first. But the Sox batters, as usual, became too aggressive against the bullpen and ended up with outs.
Even though there wasn’t a lot of offensive tonight, it was sufficient to win. Tommy Pham, the unsung hero, led off with a double in the first inning. Andrew Vaughn then swiftly drove him in with a two-bagger that clocked 105.5 mph. Vaughn appears to win when he hits. If Eloy Jiménez and AV continue to produce at a high level, the offense might be effective more of the time.
In the bottom of the second, The Good Guys added two more tallies. After hitting a crisp 394-foot line drive to center, rookie Bryan Ramos doubled to extend his hitting streak to five games. After Paul DeJong singled, Ramos was able to score from second. Chicago led 3-0 when DeJong quickly stole second and eventually came around to score on a single by Pham. Yes, it was a professionally played baseball inning done very well. It’s surprising to me that I penned those exact words regarding the 2024 White Sox.
Pedro pulled a Pedro by leaving Fedde in the game for too long in the seventh inning, just to spice things up. Rookie Jordan Leasure stepped in from the pen to save the day after he loaded the bases with no one out. He forced Kyle Manzardo to ground out and got Tyler Freeman and Bo Naylor out on swinging strike threes.
Veteran John Brebbia did his best to squander the advantage in the eighth inning after getting the first two batters out, giving up back-to-back jacks to Josh Naylor and José Ramírez of the White Sox. Unfortunately, Grifol had had enough and entered with the hook, allowing Michael Kopech to rescue the game with four outs. Relying on a first-pitch fly out to escape the eighth and a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save, Kopech completed the task.
Tomorrow night is the same time and location as the series’ second game. We’ll have all the coverage when we return to South Side Sox.
