White Sox 8, Rays 7 (10 innings): The Andrew Benintendi Game

Back-to-back wins for the Pale Hose

The White Sox did the unthinkable tonight — they pulled off another win, making it two in a row for the first time this season. Despite what happens tomorrow, they also won the series against the Rays. Am I the lucky charm? I’ve got three wins under my coverage belt. Allow me to break this huge win down.

Jonathan Cannon started and had a decent first inning. He only allowed a hit and a pitch clock violation, but no damage. The White Sox offense gave nothing.

The second inning got a little dicey for Cannon. Stuck in a jam, Jose Caballero drove in Curtis Mead, and Cannon threw a wild pitch for runners to advance and get out of a double play situation. With the score at 1-0, Cannon had two on and one out, then allowed a five-pitch walk to Richie Palacios, loading the bases. He thankfully got out of the bases-loaded jam by ringing up Randy Arozarena.

In what would’ve normally been a ground out, Jose Siri allowed the ball to pass right between his legs, and Eloy Jiménez took full advantage by tagging second. Unfortunately, the Sox stranded an impressive leadoff double and ended the second inning down by one run.

Cannon walked Amed Rosario on his 60th pitch in the third with only one out. However, he was successful with a double play to escape the inning unscathed. Pham singled with two outs to start a little rally, putting Nicky Lopez at third. Alas, Gavin Sheets was the third out on a liner.

Ben Rortvedt started the fourth with a single and Richie Palacios knocked out a two-run homer, pushing the lead to 3-0. A response was warranted, so Jiménez singled. Andrew Vaughn got lucky when José Caballero couldn’t field and overthrew to first. Then, in the shock of the century, Andrew Benintendi hit a bomb to tie the game. The ball traveled 405 feet with an exit velocity of 103.3 mph.

Austin Shenton took Cannon deep to put the Rays back up by one in the fifth. But the White Sox were hustling tonight, and the Rays were sluggish in getting outs at first. Lopez was especially fast tonight, beating out a play at first and again as he went for third after Tommy Pham’s single. Still, with no outs, Sheets knocked out a ground-rule double for his 11th RBI, sending Lopez home and sending Pham to third, tying the game again.

Aaron Civale was pulled with runners at second and third after Jiménez grounded out. Pham beat the tag home after Vaughn reached on a fielder’s choice, putting the Sox in the lead for the first time. And to keep it going, the wind assisted a Benintendi single, as Caballero got turned around tracking the ball. Sheets scored, giving the Sox a 6-4 lead.

Dominic Leone steps in and is met with Arozarena evening the score, driving in a pair with a double. And in Tampa’s eighth, Ben Rortvedt thought he had a solo home run off Steven Wilson, but after review, it was ruled that the ball stayed in the park and he got sent back to first; no ground-rule double or homer for him. A sacrifice bunt pushed the runners to second and third with Richie Palacios, 3-for-3 on the night, up to bat. The White Sox played with a little fire by loading the bases with the intentional walk to Palacios with just one out. Thankfully, Wilson induced back-to-back pop-ups from Arozarena and Isaac Paredes, leaving the bases loaded.

With the game still tied, the White Sox headed into the ninth with Michael Kopech heading to the mound. The closer conjured a well-executed double play and then punched Mead out for strike three with a 100 mph fastball. On the White Sox side, Lopez got a four-pitch walk to start the bottom of the ninth and promptly stole second. However, the White Sox couldn’t manufacture a run. On to extras!

Deivi García came out for the 10th and I audibly sighed, as the reliever immediately wild-pitched the ghost runner Mead to third. A walk to Rortvedt to put runners at first and third, and Tim Hill started warming in the pen. García briefly redeemed himself with two strikeouts, but another wild pitch would put the Rays up by one. But with two one and danger lurking, Pham ended the inning by gloving Arozarena’s line out.

Vaughn started the White Sox 10th with a productive ground out that pushed ghost runner Rafael Ortega to third.

Then, sorcery occurred!

Benintendi homered for a walk-off win.

WHAT? But yeah, it happened. Benny ended the night with six runs batted in.

As Ozzie Guillén said on the postgame show, this was also John Schriffen’s first major league walk-off call, and he crushed it.

Get your rest, friends. It’s a quick turnaround tomorrow.

Futility Watch

White Sox 2024 Record 5-22, worst 27-game start in White Sox history (ahead of 1948 and 1950, at 6-20-1), tied with three teams for sixth-worst in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Run Differential -79, tied for 12th-worst 27-game start in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Season Record Pace 37-125 (.228)
Race to the Worst-Ever White Sox Record (1932, 52-109-1*) 15 1⁄2 games ahead
Race to the Most-Ever White Sox Losses (1970, 106) 19 games ahead
Race to the Worst-Ever American League Record (1916 A’s, 38-124*) 1 games ahead
Race to the Worst-Ever MLB Record (1899 Spiders, 21-141*) 16 games behind
*record adjusted to a 162-game season