The Twilight Zone

It’s official—with their 1-0 win over the Angels in Anaheim last night, the White Sox have entered that place known as the Twilight Zone. Let me be your host. Consider the case of one Aaron Civale, a journeyman pitcher hanging on with a pretty anonymous team. As recently as three weeks ago, Civale sported an ERA of 5.30, a number that suggests he should start looking for another line of work. Then Civale entered the Twilight Zone. The 30-year old righthander has two wins in his last three starts and has lowered his ERA to 3.99 in the process. Civale yielded one hit, an infield single, in 6.1 innings of work against the Angels and sure looked like he could’ve gone seven at least. The Twilight Zone had other ideas. Like following Civale with Brandon Eisert, a pitcher so anonymous as to verge on invisible. This Invisible Man went 1.2 hitless innings before giving way to…Jordan Leasure!!!! Blare the opening voiceover. Leasure pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save. No drama, as much as I expected a two-out walk followed by a walk-off homerun. Instead, a second-inning RBI single from Kyle Teel held up as the winning run. Sox go for the sweep this afternoon. Key closing credits.