RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from Yahoo Sports — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 2 sourcesChicago White Sox pitching coach Zach Bove visited starter Noah Schultz after the left-hander hit Cleveland Guardians cleanup batter Jo Adell with a pitch to load the bases with one out Friday at Rate Field.
The next hitter, Angel Martínez, drove in two with a single to left field.
Manager Will Venable then made his way to the mound. After a discussion, the umpires announced that Schultz would have to exit because of the second mound visit of the inning.
Catching carousel continues for Chicago White Sox: Newcomer Joey Bart heads to IL, and Edgar Quero returns
With the sixth batter of the game about to step into the box, the Sox made a pitching change, calling on David Sandlin to replace Schultz.
“Just an inexcusable mistake by me where we had an appeal play that we wanted to execute, and in the urgency of trying to make that happen, just totally lost that we had visited, and obviously that was a mistake,” Venable said. “So just messed it up.
“It was just on me. That’s on me, just a mistake by me. And one of those you’ve got to learn from. Can’t happen, but it did so move on from it.”
Martínez was a headache to both pitchers, hitting a grand slam against Sandlin and finishing with a career-high six RBIs as the Guardians defeated the Sox 8-2.
“It’s a mistake, but at the same time as far as our game plan and what we had coming into the game where at signs of trouble we were going to go short with Noah there and have Sandlin here for bulk there in the middle of the game,” Venable said. “The impact on the overall plan wasn’t significant, but certainly a mistake and something we’ve got to move on from.”
Braden Montgomery and Munetaka Murakami homered in the loss as the first-place Sox saw their lead over the Guardians in the American League Central shrink to two games. The Minnesota Twins are also two games back after defeating the Milwaukee Brewers 8-6 on Friday.
The Sox have lost a season-high four straight.
Schultz allowed two runs on three hits with one strikeout in one-third of an inning.
“I left some pitches over the middle of the plate,” Schultz said. “I wish I had a couple of those back. I had a good plan going into it and unfortunate how it ended up.”
He added about the outing ending on a technicality: “It’s unfortunate, but at the end of the day, the body feels good and I’m available for whatever is needed over the next few days, and we’ll go from there.”
Postgame Ja Rule concert at Rate Field canceled because of ‘unexpected travel issues,’ Chicago White Sox say
Sandlin allowed six runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 5 1/3 innings.
“Just not good enough,” Sandlin said of his outing. “We lost, plain and simple. I needed to be better. Just one inning again. Feels like it’s been this way all year. Just got to be better and give a chance to the team to win.”
Sandlin said in the first he was “moving around, just in case anything happened. Then I saw Will go out to see Schultz. Immediate thought was Schultz was hurt, so like, get moving, get going as quickly as possible and then obviously just had to get in the game.”
The Sox were already in a pitching crunch heading into the game after using seven relievers along with starter Luis Castillo in Thursday’s 12-11 loss to the Boston Red Sox in 13 innings at Fenway Park.
Sandlin retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced after coming into the game. But he ran into trouble in the fifth inning, surrendering the grand slam to Martínez as part of a five-run inning. Steven Kwan homered leading off the sixth, stretching the Guardians’ lead to 8-1.
“Felt good early on, just kind of was starting to fatigue a little bit, got out of my normal rhythm and just needed to get back to it,” Sandlin said. “Felt like I got better after I settled back in after the grand slam. But it’s like too late at that point, you know?”
Murakami hit his 25th home run in the sixth for the game’s final run.
“There is a four-game (losing streak) for us, but tomorrow is another new beginning for us,” Murakami said through an interpreter.
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.