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.
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.
“Very different team. Very good team,” said Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann who handled the team Sunday Manager Dave Roberts attending his daughter’s college graduation. “Their approach at the plate was very good against us, all of our starters. They walk, they make contact, they do a lot of things, and obviously they hit some homers today.
“Yeah, it’s a different team this series than it was last year and the year before that. So kudos to them. They came out swinging, and jumped on Sheehan there in the sixth inning.”
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).
“I think, out of the bullpen specifically, I think maybe some strike-throwing, a few more walks that we’re not used to over the last six weeks or so, because they’ve been really, really good,” Lehmann said. “We’ve gotten bit by the long ball, obviously in Pittsburgh, and here tonight. But overall, it’s more the strike throwing and just (not) getting ahead of guys and doing what they’re supposed to do.”
There were no signs of trouble 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.
“I was trying to get it above, and I just left it in the zone,” Sheehan said.
“I felt good. I felt like I had my stuff. Changeup felt good. And then, yeah, fell apart towards the end.”
Miguel Vargas followed with a single, stole second and scored when Andrew Benintendi dropped a double inside the right-field line.
“You still stick to, one, what your pitcher is good at first of all. And two, kind of pitch around what the hitter is good at. Like I said, I thought we did a fine job with that,” Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing said of Sheehan facing the Sox lineup for a third time. “Their leadoff guy jumped on a pitch that he historically isn’t great against. But he put a good swing on the ball and sadly it didn’t go our way. They made a few adjustments as an offense and exposed me personally.”
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.
“It seems as if they’re kind of selling out a little bit to an extent,” Rushing said. “Last year, he was able to keep them in between by putting at least two pitches in the zone. … It sucks, though. You never want to see a pitcher go through a rough stretch.”
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 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).
“I think over the last three or four games, Mookie’s been trending the right way, for sure,” Lehmann said. “I think just the quality of contact is way up for Mookie. Even some of his outs in this series were really good, really hard-hit barreled balls to the outfield. So it’s really encouraging for us, for Mookie to get back to where I know he wants to be, and we all know that he can be.”
The Dodgers crept 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.