The Chicago White Sox had a run in and the bases loaded with one out in the sixth inning against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday at Comerica Park.
Trailing by one, Yasmani Grandal hit a grounder with a 102.4 exit velocity back up the middle. The ball skipped off the mound and to Tigers shortstop Zach McKinstry to start an inning-ending double play.
It was another one of those days for the Sox, who lost 3-2 in front of 18,223.
Starter Jesse Scholtens pitched well, allowing three runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and two walks in five innings. All three runs came during the third inning and the Sox couldn’t string enough together offensively to complete a comeback.
The Sox dropped two of three in the series and went 2-4 on the road trip.
Here are three takeaways from the three days at Comerica Park.
1. The Sox officially reach the elimination marker.
With Sunday’s defeat, the Sox were officially mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.
While it didn’t cost them any runs, there were some moments Sunday the team will look to clean up.
In the seventh, second baseman Elvis Andrus was charged with an error when he and right fielder Oscar Colás collided while going for a pop-up in shallow right field.
“Oscar didn’t communicate loud enough,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “Elvis didn’t hear it. One of those tweener plays that, (center fielder Luis) Robert (Jr.) explained it best to Colás, said as soon as that ball is hit look at the second baseman and if he’s looking at you, go ahead and get it. If he’s not that’s an indication he’s under it. But there has to be communication.”
Grifol said shortstop Tim Anderson “lost the ball” when he got a late jump out of the box on a chopper in front of the plate in the eighth.
The Sox didn’t have a hit until the fourth. And they went hitless in the final three innings as they fell to 55-88.
“It hasn’t been a good season,” Grifol said. “We had high expectations coming in. So we flipped our focus to making sure we see what we need to see and at the same time competing.
“We got a glimpse of (Lenyn) Sosa at third base today, we got (catcher Korey) Lee up here, he’s doing the job. Not compromising games whatsoever but there are things we need to see as well.”
2. Aggressiveness in the strike zone pays off for Yoán Moncada.
The Sox didn’t have a hit entering the seventh inning on Friday.
Robert changed that with a one-out double to left against Tigers starter Reese Olson.
With two outs, Yoán Moncada homered to give the Sox the lead. Moncada added an RBI single an inning later in the 6-0 victory.
Moncada hit a solo home run Tuesday and a two-run home run Wednesday at Kansas City. After the team’s off day, he made it three home runs in three games on Friday against the Tigers.
“I’ve been trying to be more aggressive in the strike zone,” Moncada said through an interpreter Friday. “That is the key.”
Moncada’s 17-game on-base streak came to an end Saturday. The streak was the longest by a Sox player in 2023 and the second-longest of his career (28 games in 2021).
“It’s important to finish strong,” Moncada said. “For me and the team especially.”
Moncada, whose right knee had been bothering him recently, rested on Sunday.
“He’s been a little banged up, for three or four days, playing through when he was red hot at the plate,” Grifol said before Sunday’s game. “Kept him going until (the) day game today, gave him a break, get to feeling a little better than what he has felt.”
3. Michael Kopech’s bullpen outing was ‘encouraging.’
The Sox got seven strong innings Friday from Mike Clevinger. And José Ureña was solid (one run on four hits in four innings) on Saturday.
But all eyes were on the bullpen, with Michael Kopech .
“(We) put him in the bullpen now to take a break,” Grifol said before Saturday’s game. “To work on some mechanical stuff. We consider him a starter. He could end up starting this year, if not this year he’ll come into spring training as a starter.
“He is not a reliever. And we did not move him to the ’pen for the rest of the year. It might turn out that way, it might not. It’s definitely something we haven’t even discussed. Just for right now it’s here’s what we’ve got.”
Kopech pitched the seventh inning Saturday night. He allowed one run — a homer to Matt Vierling — in the one inning. He struck out one and walked one.
“I thought he was electric,” Grifol said after Saturday’s game. “His fastball was jumping on hitters. Threw some really good breaking balls, hung one. But he threw the ball really good. It was really encouraging.”
Grifol said Saturday’s outing was what they had in mind with the move.
“Little wins like this,” Grifol said. “Do a couple of these and get him feeling his mechanics back to where he’s comfortable and then we’ll take it from there.”
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