The Chicago White Sox sent Dylan Cease to the mound on Saturday afternoon looking to win back-to-back games against AL Central Division rival Detroit. While the White Sox wound up in the left-hand column with a victory, the manner in which they did so was rather unconventional. The game itself is one that will go down in the record books as historic.
Wild Pitch Offense
After a scoreless first three frames, the White Sox were able to strike first during the bottom of the fourth inning. Andrew Benintendi got the party started after singling to right field and subsequently stealing second base.
With Benintendi on second, Detroit Tigers starter Michael Lorenzen threw the first of many key Wild Pitches to be thrown during Saturday's ballgame sending Benintendi over to third. Lorenzen wasn't done delivering wild pitches during the at-bat, sending yet another to the backstop scoring Benintendi from third.
The Tigers were able to respond during the top of the sixth inning with some wild pitch offense of their own. Zach McKinstry led the inning off with a triple to right-center off of Dylan Cease. With Javier Baez up, Cease threw a slider in the dirt passed catcher Yasmani Grandal scoring McKinstry.
That would be all the offense either ballclub would muster during the first nine innings of play. While the White Sox threatened in the bottom of the eighth, Tim Anderson lined out to first to end the scoring threat, leaving two runners on base.
Extra Wild
As the game headed to extras, Pedro Grifol turned to Reynaldo Lopez to keep the Tigers off the board. After issuing a leadoff walk, Lopez worked himself out of the two-on, no-out jam by inducing two straight pop-outs and a ground ball.
Yoan Moncada entered the 10th inning as the White Sox runner on second base. After a Romy Gonzalez sacrifice bunt to move Moncada to third, Yasmani Grandal made the first and only out of extras for the Southsiders by grounding out to second.
The Tigers opted to intentionally walk Gavin Sheets, and after a replay review, Jake Burger was awarded first base on a hit by pitch. With leadoff hitter Tim Anderson at the plate with the bases loaded, Tigers relief pitcher Jose Cisnero threw a 97 MPH fastball straight into the mask of the home plate umpire scoring Yoan Moncada from third base.
Historical
The game was one for the record books. With all three runs scored on wild pitches, it marked the first time in MLB history that all runs were scored in such a manner.
It was also the first ballgame since 1990 that the White Sox won without recording a single RBI. That also makes Saturday's affair the first game the Southsiders won in the ballpark now known as Guaranteed Rate Field.
In fact, there are only six ball games in recorded history in which both teams scored runs without recording an RBI.
Truly, it was one for the record books.
What's On Tap Next
The Chicago White Sox will wrap their three-game set with the Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon at 1:10 PM CT. Chicago will send Michael Kopech to the mound looking to rebound after a rough start against the Angels on Monday. Matthew Boyd (3-4, 5.96 ERA) will take the mound for the Tigers.
More must-reads: