What David Bowie Said

I love the unpredictability of baseball. You just don’t know what will happen when or how. Like yesterday’s White Sox -Giants’ game. The Sox managed all of one run, on a homerun by Andrew Benintendi in the bottom of the sixth. And that’s all they needed for a shutout made possible by a seven-inning start—let me repeat, seven innings—from starter Adrian Houser followed by a two-inning save—let me repeat, two innings—from Grant Taylor. Two pitchers for nine innings: Analytics be damned. As sweet as lefthanded Benintendi connecting off of lefty Robbie Ray plus the old-school efforts by Houser and Taylor, we’re probably talking about a 2-1 loss if not for catcher Edgar Quero. Consider that in the top of the sixth, the Giants had runners on second and third, nobody out, and Rafael Devers up. Oh, my. And what happened? First off, Houser struck out Devers swinging. Then, Edgar fired a throw to third baseman Josh Rojas, who tagged out baserunner Brett Wisely trying to get back to third. It’s the third time this season Quero has picked off a baserunner. For this kind of heads-up defense and a focus on putting the ball in play, Quero gets my vote as #1 catcher over Kyle Teel. And just for one day, Sox fans had four heroes to choose from.