White Sox’ offense falters, spoils strong pitching performance in Sunday’s extra-inning loss

Starter Garrett Crochet was glued to the back-and-forth game between the White Sox and the Rockies.

“I haven’t even done my post-throw yet because I was sitting on the edge of my seat there watching [pitcher Michael] Soroka do what he did,” Crochet said. “Tough one to lose but a good one. We know we fought hard.”

The Sox lost Sunday’s series finale 5-4 in 14 innings, the longest Sox game by innings since Aug. 2, 2019. The game was a tense, dramatic edge-of-your-seat affair between teams near the bottom of the standings.

The Sox finished 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position, spoiling a strong day by the pitching staff.

“That was a battle back and forth between both sides,” first baseman Andrew Vaughn said. “Just chipping away, and in the end, they held us out.”

In the 13th inning, the Sox had a chance to end the game with runners on first and second with one out, but shortstop Paul DeJong grounded into a double play. The Sox had 10 hits and created numerous scoring chances, but they couldn’t take advantage. That they were able to stay in the game is a testament to Crochet and the bullpen.

Crochet continued his impressive season with his sixth career double-digit strikeout game. The hard-throwing left-hander generated 24 swings-and-misses, primarily using his fastball and changeup. Crochet went seven innings, allowing five hits, two runs, zero walks and struck out 11.

After giving up some soft contact in the second inning, which turned into two runs for the Rockies, Crochet rebounded and allowed two hits over the next five innings. He has given up three runs or fewer in 12 consecutive games after Sunday’s outing.

The bullpen — led by Soroka, who pitched four innings allowing two runs (zero earned) and two walks with six strikeouts — allowed just three runs that were all unearned. The pitching staff’s 21 strikeouts were the most in Sox history.

“It sucks to end up on the wrong side of a marathon like that,” Grifol said. “A lot of good things, a lot of opportunities. The pitching was phenomenal.”

For the third consecutive game, the Sox’ pitching staff kept the team in the game long enough for the offense to get a chance to find its rhythm. Crochet and relievers John Brebbia and Michael Kopech retired 18 consecutive batters from the fourth inning until the 10th, when first baseman Michael Toglia walked.

“[Crochet] really pitched today,” Grifol said. “He did a really good job of economizing some pitches. After the sixth, I told him you got 10 or 12 pitches left, and he just smiled and said, ‘That’s enough.’ That was really good to see him go out there and shut down that seventh inning.

“After that, our bullpen was phenomenal. Everybody who came in did a really good job. Soroka did an incredible job giving us a chance to win four times. Two of them without them scoring.”

Good pitching can keep a team in the game if the batters are struggling, and Sunday’s performance was another example.

Grifol said the minor details are holding back the Sox’ offense. The team is last in runs scored, slugging percentage and batting average. They just couldn’t get that one extra hit.

“We have to take advantage of a ball in the dirt, little things like that we have to capitalize if we want to do this thing on a consistent basis,” Grifol said. “These are games that could go either way and with a couple of things here and there they go our way.”