The Chicago White Sox will call upon pride and the inspiration of two local talents when they continue a three-game road series against the playoff-contending San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night.
The visitors had an early lead and made a late rally in the series opener on Monday, but both went for naught in a hard-fought, 5-3 loss.
The win allowed the Giants to move within 3 1/2 games of the final wild-card National League spot.
The White Sox, who were mathematically eliminated from the American League playoff race over the weekend, took the field Monday with a goal of impacting the postseason picture over the final six weeks of the season.
They succeeded in making the Giants sweat, scoring twice in the eighth to get within two, then getting the potential tying runs aboard later in the inning and again in the ninth before coming up short.
“There’s always something to play for,” interim manager Grady Sizemore noted. “There are a lot of playoff teams coming up, there are going to be a lot of good matchups and we can do a lot of harm and spoil the party.”
The White Sox will see the team immediately ahead of the Giants in the NL race — the New York Mets — during a homestand next week.
A trip to San Francisco means a return home for Andrew Vaughn and Korey Lee, a pair of University of California alumni who were slotted Nos. 3-4 in the Chicago lineup Monday.
Lee (double and a single) and Vaughn (single) combined for three of Chicago’s 11 hits, but hopes of a happy homecoming ended when each flied out with the potential tying runs on base in the ninth to end the game.
They will take their cracks Tuesday against Robbie Ray (2-2, 6.00 ERA). The Giants left-hander equaled the shortest start of his career when he got just two outs in a 13-2 home loss to the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. He was pulled after walking three, hitting two and allowing one hit, all of which resulted in five runs.
Despite having recorded wins over 26 major league teams in his 11-year career, the 32-year-old has never beaten the White Sox, going 0-1 with a 3.66 ERA in three starts.
Chicago is set to send righty Davis Martin (0-1, 3.00 ERA) out to face the Giants for the first time in his two-year major league career.
The White Sox have lost all three of 27-year-old’s starts this season despite the fact he has allowed zero or one run in two of them. The White Sox have been outscored 23-6 in Martin’s starts, with 18 of the opponents’ runs coming after Martin left the game.
Martin likely will see the Giants once again without starting catcher Patrick Bailey, who felt tightness in his side during batting practice Monday and was scratched from the lineup.
Veteran Curt Casali made the most of his emergency start, stroking two hits, including an RBI single in the Giants’ decisive, four-run fifth inning.
“That’s what guys like him (do) — a lot of times you’re not expecting to play, you come in, and he contributed (both offensively and defensively),” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “Big hit, and he knows how to protect the lead (on defense). Nice resource to have.”
–Field Level Media