Our writer and frequent recapper Chrystal O’Keefe cashed in on a prize won via the White Sox and sat with her family in the gold boxes for tonight’s game. They also got a photo with Ozzie on the field pregame, and her son Hayden was the junior announcer for the game, sitting up in the press box with Gene Honda and ushering the White Sox lineup into the game.
That said, this game — Bill Veeck Night, honoring the greatest showman the White Sox, and baseball, has ever known — was severely lacking in … fireworks. If the White Sox were still a Veeck team, you might think that the deep gold moon hovering over the park on Saturday night somehow was a product of a wacky promotion, but no.
Now, if starter Sean Burke had lasted longer that 10 outs, or if the offense had nubbed out more than four hits, or if the young core mustered even a single hit in the game, this contest — win or lose — could have been filed in the great-game-get-em-tomorrow bin.
But beyond WIN05’s favorite member of the rebuild unit, Michael A. Taylor, clocking a homer in the second to knot the game 1-1, this one wasn’t much to write home about.
The White Sox did attempt to rally — yes, I am calling two walks with just one out, I’ve been covering this team half of my life — in the bottom of the eighth. But slick Cleveland second-sacker Brayan Rocchio played spoiler:
There was talk in the game of the Sox failure to convert on runners in scoring position as a key, and when your only run is a homer and four hits mark the offense, sure. But we’ve seen a lot more futile efforts this season than tonight’s 0-for-6 with RISP.
On a positive note, the bullpen covered 17 outs after Burke proffered little opposition to the Guardians. The random assortment of arms — Tyler Gilbert, Bryan Hudson, Jordan Leasure and Wikelman González — was BUFF, nearly perfect save for a solo homer off of Hudson in the sixth.
The loss drops the White Sox to 33 games worse than .500, which for all the hubbub about the improved club into and out of the All-Star break, matches the season low-water mark. The team is back on a 104-loss pace, and now MUST win one of every three games, finishing 15-30, in order to avoid the second-most losses in franchise history.