White Sox Look to Avoid Sweep in L.A. After Late-Inning Collapse

The Chicago White Sox dropped a familiar one Wednesday night at Chavez Ravine, falling 5–4 to the Los Angeles Dodgers in walk-off fashion. If you missed it, don’t worry—you’ve seen this movie before. Only this time, it came with a little trivia nugget to boot.

In a night headlined by Clayton Kershaw’s 3,000th career strikeout, who became just the 20th pitcher in history to reach that milestone, and might be the last. White Sox reliever and third baseman Vinny Capra had the honor of being the answer to that particular trivia question. What a legacy.

Rocky Start, Brief Hope, Predictable Finish

Will Venable put the opener strategy back in play with left-hander Brandon Eisert taking the first frame before turning things over to Sean Burke. The Dodgers struck early, but Burke eventually settled in, holding L.A.’s high-powered offense in check while the White Sox scratched their way to a 4–2 lead.

Rookie Grant Taylor did what he’s done all year: dominated the eighth, two strikeouts, no nonsense. But then, like clockwork, the wheels flew off in the ninth. You know how this ends—the White Sox walked off the field as extras in someone else’s feel-good story.

Civale Time: Innings, Walks, and a Prayer

The White Sox turn to veteran righty Aaron Civale tonight, hoping he can somehow stop the bleeding. Acquired to be a stabilizing innings-eater (translation: someone to prevent bullpen disasters until the eighth), Civale has made three starts for the Sox with mixed results.

In his last outing, he walked the tightrope through four shaky innings but allowed just one run. The problem? He’s walking 5.1 batters per nine innings and giving up hard contact on both sides of the plate. 

Civale has reverse splits this year, meaning he’s been slightly better against lefties—but lefties still have a .784 OPS against him, so, you know, take that for what it’s worth.

Seven different Dodgers have hits against Civale, and Will Smith has left the yard twice in just three career plate appearances. So that’s neat.