CHICAGO – The big innings have led to unhappy endings.
Emmet Sheehan and Jack Dreyer combined to give up three home runs and six runs in the sixth inning Sunday afternoon as the Chicago White Sox handed the Dodgers a 6-4 loss.
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After three consecutive 100-loss seasons (including 121 two seasons ago), the White Sox have risen from the dead and are contenders in the American League Central. They took two of three in the weekend series with the Dodgers.
One day after Yoshinobu Yamamoto flirted with history, the Dodgers’ recent pitching problems returned. The six-run sixth for the Sox was the fifth time in the past seven games that Dodgers pitchers gave up four or more runs in an inning. Thirteen of the 15 runs the White Sox scored in the series came in two innings – a seven-run fifth inning against Roki Sasaki and Blake Treinen on Friday and Sunday’s six-run burst against Sheehan and Dreyer.
Over that seven-game stretch, they have surrendered 46 runs in all, evenly distributed between starters (23 runs in 36 innings) and bullpen (23 in 23 2/3 innings).
There were no signs of that for five innings as Sheehan allowed just one hit while going through the White Sox’s lineup twice.
He messed up his own shot at perfection when he hit Chase Meidroth with a pitch in the second inning. But he did retire 11 of the first 12 White Sox batters before giving up his first hit, a double down the first-base line by Colson Montgomery with two outs in the fourth inning.
He struck out eight, walked another batter but didn’t give up another hit until the sixth inning.
That’s when things went south for the Dodgers on the South Side.
Facing the Sox lineup for the third time, Sheehan didn’t retire a batter. He left an 0-and-2 fastball up to Sam Antonacci and the Sox’s leadoff hitter sent it into the right-field seats to tie the game.
Miguel Vargas followed with a single, stole second and scored when Andrew Benintendi dropped a double inside the right-field line.
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Acting manager Danny Lehmann pulled Sheehan at that point, but Dreyer only made things worse. He made the same mistake to Colson Montgomery, leaving a fastball up over the plate to one of the Sox’s left-handed hitters. Montgomery drove it 410 feet into the seats.
Braden Montgomery singled and Chase Meidroth hit another Dreyer fastball into the seats for the Sox’s third home run of the inning and the fifth Dreyer has given up in seven innings since returning from the Injured List.
Meanwhile, the White Sox were holding the Dodgers’ hitters in check with a bullpen game.
The early returns weren’t great. They went with left-hander Bryan Hudson as an opener, sending him to face lefties Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the first inning. Freeman homered off Hudson.
But that was all the damage the Dodgers managed against the Sox parade of pitchers until the seventh inning.
They scored one in the seventh when Dalton Rushing doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Freeland then got another in the eighth when Mookie Betts hit a solo home run. His second hit of the day got Betts’ batting average over .200 (.204) for the first time since March 27 (the second game of the season).
They got even closer in the ninth when Sox closer Seranthony Dominguez walked the first batter he faced and gave up an RBI double to Freeland. The Dodgers had the tying runs on base when Freeman struck out to end the game.