The White Sox took the field against the Diamondbacks today on a clear crisp Spring afternoon at Running Cedar. The White Sox jumped on the starting pitcher with a quick single by Mark and a sharply hit ball by Garret that forced Mark at second. David Wynne followed with a line drive single to right that he tried to stretch to a double and was caught at second. Coach Grossman held Garret at third in what looked to this reporter as a good time to send him home.
And so it was, with the score locked at 0-0, David Wynne took the mound. He pitched extremely well with two key strikeouts. The Diamondbacks scored twice on some walks and wild pitches, but with a runner on third, they tried for a third time and David Riddle made a nice play with a perfect flip to David Wynne to nail the runner at the plate.
The White Sox then attacked again with a two out rally, they loaded the bases with a walk to Christopher, a smash to left by Tom, and sharp single by Dominique. Mark drilled one to first, but the first baseman made a nice play and the White Sox left again with no runs.
David Wynne then pitched his best inning to date with a simple three up three down inning with two strikeouts and week grounder back to the pitcher. So at the end of two it was only 2-0 Diamondbacks. The White Sox again put a runner in scoring position with a long shot double left by David Wynne. He moved to third on a wild pitch and the next pitch was wild and bounced a few feet to the right of the catcher. With one out and the cleanup man Bretton at the plate, Coach Grossman now sent David Wynne home on the wild pitch. It was not to be. The catcher swiftly moved to the ball and tagged David at the plate.
Wesley came on in the bottom of the third and looked very nice on the mound holding the Diamondbacks to only two — so a the end of three it was 4-0. That proved to be enough for the Diamondbacks as they brought in their ace closer who retired nine of the next eleven batters he faced to give the Diamondbacks a 8-0 win. This reporter would like to mention that Nolan looked good on the mound in the 4th and Bretton pitched a stellar fifth.
Coach Grossman again available only briefly for comment as he was late for a staff meeting with White Sox scouts to prepare for Tuesday’s game looked off into the horizon and said, “I think our guys were getting a little complacent after the first two games…the Diamondbacks are as good a team as we will see this year and we stayed with them very nicely — 8 runs in this league is not a big deficit and the truth is we could have come back at any time. I liked how our guys kept giving their best throughout the game and I expect us to be very ready for next Tuesday’s game — I will say that we still had people removing their glove while out in the field and in general not paying attention to the batter — hopefully all of that will go away next game. “
We asked Coach Grossman what he was thinking when he sent David Wynne home with only one out — slightly against “the book” which suggests that caution be exercised with one out and a runner on third and the heart of the order at the plate. He declined to comment after muttering something about reporters and their incessant questions — and rushed off to continue his busy coaching agenda.
The White Sox play Game 4 this Tuesday at 5:30.
