With most of the expected big hitters out of the lineup after yesterday’s split-squad games, some other sources made Tanner Bibee’s first inning of the spring a miserable one. For him.
No. 2 hitter Sam Antonacci started things off for the White Sox when he got a 2-0 cutter that had too much of the plate.
Antonacci knew that was gone from the start, all 107.1 mph, 416´worth. That shot was followed by Miguel Vargas and LaMonte Wade Jr. doubles, with Wade later scoring on a wild pitch for a 3-0 Sox lead.
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Bibee settled down for two scoreless innings after that, but Shane Smith showed his weak first start had just been working out the kinks as he kept the Guardians off the board until one run in the third, although a sweet play by William Bergolla Jr. at short kept the damage from being worse.
Lousy Cleveland defense (see, other teams have that, too) helped the Sox to two more runs in the fifth, with Bergolla and Antonacci scoring after walking and getting hit by a pitch, the first of two HBPs for Antonacci in the game. Bergolla also had an RBI single in the sixth, making it 6-1, and Antonacci scored in the seventh for a 7-1 lead. Both players are making management decisions on which middle infielders to keep when camp breaks ever more difficult.
Three Sox relievers cruised their way to the seventh, when Tyler Davis decided the game was too much of a yawner and coughed up three runs on two hits and a walk in the bottom of the seventh. Cleveland added one more in the eighth and had the tying run at the plate, but Adysin Coffey got a three-pitch K to end the threat. Shane Murphy then had an easy ninth for the save.
The Sox only had seven hits for their seven runs as they ran their spring record to 6-4, but six walks and those two HBPs, along with bad Guardian fielding decisions, helped things out.
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Next up is a rematch with the Cubs, first pitch at 2:05 p.m. Central tomorrow. It will be on ESPN 1000, but you won’t get to watch the game unless you’re on of those turncoats who get Cubs TV.
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