Ugly, Lucky Scoreless Inning

It was one of the ugliest, luckiest scoreless innings I’ve ever seen a White Sox pitcher hurl (note the subtle pun). In his first appearance after suffering a sprained ankle at the All-Star Game, Shane Smith sandwiched a single around two walks to start the bottom of the first in Anaheim. There was ever so much more to come in a 6-3 Sox victory. Start with Sox catcher Edgar Quero, who picked off Zach Neto at third base; that’s two such pickoffs for the rookie, in case you’re counting. Not only that, Quero would’ve thrown out the trailer on a double-steal attempt that followed, only second baseman Lenyn Sosa dropped the ball. Somehow, Smith found the wherewithal to strike out Jo Adell for the second out. But wait, we’re not done here. Smith then proceeded to walk ex-Sox Yoan Moncada on five pitches to load the bases for a second time. On his 35th pitch of the inning, the 25-year old righthander induced a groundout from Angels’ catcher Logan O’Hoppe. Alleluia. In the top of the second inning, Sosa atoned for his fielding gaff by joining Andrew Benintendi to club back-to-back homeruns; Sosa also singled in a run. (What do you do with a problem…?) Colson Montgomery provided homerun #3 on the night, a 433-foot shot to dead center in the top of the sixth. Oh, and Josh Rojas (!!!) homered in the ninth. Jordan Leasure—see exclamation marks, above—struck out four in 1.2 innings of relief to pick up the win, made possible in part by a textbook-perfect relay in the seventh inning with Grant Taylor pitching. It went from right fielder Mike Tauchman to shortstop Montgomery to third baseman Rojas, who applied the tag on baserunner Gustavo Campero, who tried to advance from first with two outs on a single by Nolan Schanuel. Wait, there’s more. Rojas’ tag came before Angels’ baserunner Travis d’Arnaud crossed the plate; that run would’ve tied the game at four. Mercy. The Sox now have equaled their win total (41 games) from last season and have 52 games left to record #42. I’m hoping for as close to 70 as they can make it.