CHICAGO — The White Sox’ reaction to their 2-1 victory over the Tigers in 10 innings on Saturday at Guaranteed Rate Field was tempered from previous celebrations.
The joy was slightly diminished directly by the way the match ended. With the bases loaded, and two outs and Tim Anderson at the plate, Jose Cisnero unleashed a 96.4-mph four-run over the glove of catcher Eric Haas and slammed straight into the facemask of home plate umpire Corey Blazer.
While Haase was looking for baseball and the players also worried about Blaser, Yoán Moncada raced home from the game-winning third. Blaser’s condition was still on the minds of White Sox players and coach Pedro Grifol after the game as they earned their second straight win.
“Capture the referee but score the round and get the win?” said Anderson, who was the first to help Placer to his feet. “Try to take care of everything, I guess. Just glad we got the win.”
“It’s a strange scenario,” said reliever Liam Hendrix. “My first instinct is to look and see he’s okay before anything else. I guess that’s how I’m wired. As long as he’s okay. Hopefully a pitcher is okay too because that can be very daunting as a pitcher in that situation.”
Romy González threw Moncada for third to start in the tenth, but a late Yasmani Grandal took second after an 11-pitch at bat that caught Moncada. The Tigers intentionally walked Gavin Sheets and Cisnero hit Jake Burger with a pitch on his right wrist to load the bases, after Placer’s original call for an offense ball had been overturned by a White Sox challenge.
Cisnero’s final pitch crossed on Haas, who was slotted into the outside corner. The baseball rolled to Haase’s right after Blaser hit.
“I was trying to go down the slide. I heard a sink,” Haas said. “Obviously very close, but it’s such an unfortunate place to be. I hope Corey is okay.”
“It was a Bam Bam play,” Moncada said through interpreter Billy Russo. “I just interacted and managed to score.”
Major League Baseball released a statement that the Blazers are being evaluated. Updates will be shared as they become available.
To make this game even more unusual, all three runs were scored across a wild pitch. For Elias, it was the first time in the Live Ball Era that a game featured three or more runs all scored by a wild pitch and/or a passed ball.
The White Sox scored their first home run on Andrew Benintendi’s single and stolen base in the fourth, followed by Detroit’s first two pitches by Michael Lorenzen of the season.
“Three runs, three wild pitches. Sometimes, those things happen. Whatever they want to give us, we have to take it,” Moncada said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before,” Grifoll said, “just to answer that question before I ask it.” “It’s a major league win, and our guys did a really good job.”
Hendrix’s perfect frame was his first since his emotional and triumphant comeback on Monday against the Angels. Haas retired a pop-up to second baseman Elvis Andros, Nick Mattoon on a fly ball to center fielder Louis Robert Jr. and struck out Zach Short. Hendriks kept the baseball in that strike as another memento after hitting 96.8 mph with his fastball during that at-bat.
“The pace felt like it was coming out really well,” Hendrix said. “Everything is moving forward. It’s moving forward. Also, this is a few more days off than I’m used to, too. I mean Monday through Saturday, so…get back out there and put my legs under me.”
“I always expect him to have good innings, so I’m not shocked,” said White Sox starter Dylan Keyes, who once allowed two runs on two hits over 5 1/3 innings. “He keeps working himself to get back to what he’s capable of.”
After improving to 15-15 at home and 25-35 overall, the White Sox are hoping to get back into American League Central competition no matter how the wins tally.
“Definitely a good win today,” said Anderson. “Hopefully we can keep riding the momentum. Keep trying to keep playing good baseball.”
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