TL;DR: A tepid offense and another inconsistent effort from Zac Gallen dashed any hope for a sweep on the South Side.
For the second straight series against the dregs of the big leagues, the D-Backs failed to secure a sweep. This time they did hold a lead, albeit for all of four batters, before the bats failed to sustain any kind of rally and Zac Gallen plus a small posse of relievers failed to hold the line to give them a chance. It was a dud of a game to end what was otherwise a (literally) bruising road trip that was mostly successful – even if it didn’t reach the higher hopes that I and others had for it. Sadly, it doesn’t escape me that both of the losses on the road trip were started by Gallen who is surely having one of the worst walk years imaginable. His performance has reached the point in which there is a genuine question whether he will even receive a qualifying offer from the team this offseason, but that’s a question and debate for a later time.
It certainly seemed like today’s game was well-primed for a “get right” performance for Zac Gallen. He was coming off an ugly start in Colorado, but that’s seemingly where pitchers go to die. Today, he got the privilege of facing a majors-worst offense in OPS, third-worst in runs scored, and third-worst in homers. And rather than finally finding a rhythm, he labored through 5.1 innings and never looked comfortable or confident in any of his pitches. There has been an unfortunate theme that has haunted Gallen all season: far too many walks (42 at the end of play today) and home runs (19). Both of those numbers are on pace for career worsts and really limit any upside he has from his past performance.
The D-Backs’ offense was seemingly determined to make Gallen comfortable and quickly built him a lead. Geraldo Perdomo led off the game striking out on a nasty curveball – so nasty in fact that catcher Kyle Teel couldn’t corral it and failed to throw him out at first (after a quick Arizona challenge). As it’s sometimes said, “Good teams take advantage of mistakes.” That’s certainly what the D-Backs did as Josh Naylor, reinserted back into the starting lineup after an awkward swing yesterday, put to rest any lingering concern by walloping the first pitch he saw into the right field bleachers for an early 2-0 D-Backs lead. Following that dynamic first inning however, the offense was stuck in neutral for much of the afternoon. They had at least one baserunner in every inning except the seventh, but found nearly every combination to get themselves out of a rally: two double play groundouts, one caught stealing, and nine strikeouts.
Sadly, half of that aforementioned theme again played out this afternoon at Guaranteed Rate field as Gallen limited himself to a single walk, but two home runs provided the bulk of the Chicago scoring. After being handed an early lead, the veteran almost immediately handed it back with a solo homer from Andrew Benintendi, a walk and steal to Miguel Vargas, and a sharp single from Kyle Teel knotted the score at two. He did settle in somewhat in the second and third innings – helped by a double play ball – but another single from Teel and a hanging curveball that Lenyn Sosa demolished doubled Chicago’s score. After retiring one more batter following a leadoff ground-rule double, Torey Lovullo lifted the righty for Juan Morillo who promptly gave up a run-scoring single to Sosa on the third pitch of his outing that closed the book on Gallen for another uninspiring line: 5.1 IP, 8H, 5ER, 1BB, 2K. To be fair, the bullpen didn’t fare much better as Morillo, Kevin Ginkel, and Tayler Scott combined for 2.2 IP and gave up two more runs on four additional hits.
In a vacuum, it’s difficult to be upset with a 4-2 road trip. Regardless of the respective records, every baseball team is filled with professionals who are trying to win every night. That parity is one of my favorite aspects of baseball. Even if your team is one of the worst teams in the league, and these White Sox have a chance of following the ignominious path set out by their predecessors from last year to be historically bad, you still have a chance to see them win. This roadtrip didn’t happen in a vacuum though. It came against two of the weakest teams in the big leagues and it’s difficult not to feel at least a little disappointed they weren’t able to complete the sweep in one of the series. There are certainly legitimate reasons you could point to – namely injury – that soften that disappointment, but only a little bit. The team took care of business in at least winning both series, but I have a hard time shaking the feeling that the team left a bit of meat on the bone. Regardless, after an off day tomorrow to lick their literal and metaphorical wounds, they will try to get back on track against the Marlins this weekend in Phoenix.
