Marlins 7, White Sox 4: Another incredible meltdown

Time and again, the 2024 White Sox have proven to be surprising losers, and in the most literal sense. Not only do they lose more games than any other team in Major League Baseball, but they often choose the most complicated, ridiculous, self-parodying looks to make up for their lack of accomplishment.

The White Sox had a chance to defeat the Marlins in Miami, but instead were denied their only road series win, which would have been their second of the season. They took a 4-1 lead after six matches, thanks to an impressive start from Jonathan Cannon, but saw it collapse in the final few innings.

Tanner Banks gave up a few runs in the seventh, but in the traditional sense. He issued a leadoff walk, followed by an RBI double and a pair of productive outs. This kind of sequence happens all the time, and the White Sox still had a one-run lead, which John Brebbia preserved in the eighth.

Michael Kopech came in, and while you can see from the final score that he gave up four runs in the bottom of the ninth, and you know it would have to include a homer for the Marlins to win by more than one, you don’t have to make any sense of the trip. There will be no real feeling.

Leadoff walk to Vidal Brujan, of course. Banks had done the same thing in the first two innings, except this time it resulted in a sack.

But what if I told you it was a two-base sacrifice bunt because Corey Lee couldn’t cover third, and Brujan kept running? And Brujan was almost able to pull an AJ Pierzynski, but Gavin Sheets got home as soon as he saw Brujan’s mental wheels spinning. Kopech got Jazz Chisholm Jr. to fly out very shallow to left on the first pitch, which nearly nailed Brujan’s derring-do.

After this, Josh Bell stepped up to the plate as the last man out and had a hitless streak of 0 for 24 on his shoulders. Kopech fell behind 3-0 on a high fastball, before loading the count on two more fastballs. The sixth fastball was up and off the plate, but Bell was ready to take it in that direction and launched a 101-mph drive toward left field. Tommy Pham ran after him and jumped on the wall…

…but very quickly. As Pham was going down the field, the ball bounced off his glove, then hung between the wall and Pham’s person, creating the illusion of a catch until the ball fell onto the warning track. Bruijn scored, Bell advanced to second with his fall and now read “1-for-25”. Signal for extra innings.

Until they did. Kopech never actually recorded a third out. He fell behind Jesus Sanchez, 2-1, before Pedro Grifol was called for an intentional walk to bring old friend Jake Berger to the plate. Berger swung a fastball over the top of the field, then took a borderline fastball to the knees called ball.

The third pitch was delayed because, in the process of his first attempt, he caught a spike and lost his balance for the second time in a week, resulting in a balk that put two runners in scoring position. This created the possibility of a walk-off single, but Berger made it moot, because when Kopech threw a third fastball, it bounced back to the top of the zone, Berger, without any doubt, hit the 431-foot blast to left center. Excluded from. Instead of a walk-off homer.

The White Sox and Marlins left the series the same way they found it. The White Sox are still the worst team, and the Marlins are the second-worst team, trailing the Rockies by a half game. The only difference is that the White Sox were six games worse than Miami, and now they are seven games worse.

As for how the White Sox managed to stay ahead in this game, that was also a bit mysterious. Danny Mendick launched a two-run homer off Edward Cabrera for a 2–0 lead in the fourth inning, leaving everyone wondering why he bunted with runners on the corners and two outs against Cabrera two innings earlier. Done (he went out, sniffing) rally)

They gave up half of the lead when Cannon walked two batters for the second consecutive inning and made up for it on a Brujan RBI double, but that was the only loss of more than six. By the time his day ended, the White Sox had increased their lead by two runs in the sixth. Corey Lee tripled to the right field corner to score Mendick and then dramatically homered on an Andrew Von Sack fly. Nick Gordon made an incredible diving catch, even though the ball almost broke the webbing of his glove. The White Sox challenged the call, and put the first of two losses on Grifol’s tab.

bullet points:

*Grifol There is only 2-12-12 on challenges this year. He has more ejections than reverse calls.

*kopeck Now, along with the savings, there are also equal losses. He is 8 out of 13 in the latter category.

record: 26-66 | Box Score | statcast