San Francisco Giants Mark Canha swings for a base hit in the bottom of the fourth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wed Aug 21, 2024 (AP News photo)

Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024

Oracle Park

San Francisco, California

Chicago White Sox 6 (31-97)

San Francisco Giants 2 (65-64)

Win: Fraser Ellard (1-1)

Loss: Erik Miller (3-4)

Time: 2:10

Attendance: 28,375

By Stephen Ruderman

Not only did the Giants fail to complete the sweep of the historically-bad White Sox, but they wasted another great outing by Logan Webb and imploded in the top of the ninth inning, as the South Siders scored four runs en route to a 6-2 win on Wednesday afternoon.

The Giants have been able to take advantage of playing not just the worst team in Baseball, but an historically-bad Chicago White Sox’ team that could end up having the worst season in Baseball History.

The Giants have won three-straight, including the first two of this series. Today, Logan Webb was making what seems like a rare start after a Giants’ win, as they had a chance to sweep and get back to their season-high three games over .500.

However, Webb would immediately run into trouble right out of the gate. Nicky Lopez led off the game with a triple, and he scored two batters later on a base-hit by Andrew Benintendi.

Left-hander Garrett Crochet made the start for Chicago. Crochet started off his afternoon with a scoreless bottom of the first inning and a one, two, three bottom of the second. Webb settled down with a scoreless top of the second and a one, two, three top of the third.

Casey Schmitt led off the bottom of the third with a double for the Giants’ first hit of the game. However, this being the Giants, Crochet set down the next three in order to escape the inning unscathed.

The White Sox would make the Giants pay for their wasted opportunity. Luis Robert Jr., who you could say “robbed” Curt Casali of an RBI base-hit with a sliding catch that he really didn’t need to make in the bottom of the third, led off the top of the fourth with a double.

Benintendi flew out to right field to move Robert over to third base, and Andrew Vaughn got Robert in on a sacrifice fly to left to make it 2-0. Talk about manufacturing a run.

Gavin Sheets then singled to extend the inning. Now usually wouldn’t go on about an inning like this since the White Sox did not extend their lead, but Korey Lee hit a ground ball right to third that Matt Chapman ran to his right to field right on the line, and Chapman made a perfect jump throw to first to end the inning.

Matt Chapman has shined at the hot corner all season, and his defense and leadership have been a huge boost for this team. He may be getting up in age, but he has certainly earned an extension.

Chapman’s great play was a shot in the arm for the Giants in the bottom of the fourth. Mark Canha led off the inning with a ground-rule double, and Heliot Ramos also doubled, which moved Canha to third—I know, make that make sense.

Chapman, who now had the chance to get the big hit after his great play at third, struck out swinging. Jerar Encarnacion got Canha in on a ground out to second to put the Giants on the board.

Still, the Giants were lacking that big RBI hit. However, they would get it when Thairo Estrada stepped up and singled the other way to right to tie the game.

From there, Webb was in complete command. He threw four more scoreless innings and retired 12 of the final 13 men he faced to cap off another incredible outing.

Webb went eight innings, giving up just two runs and five hits. He did not walk anybody, and he struck out six. Unfortunately, it was still the same story for Webb on the offensive side, as the Giants’ offense was only able to provide him with two runs of support.

For the White Sox, Crochet was done after just four innings. Chad Kuhl pitched a one, two, three inning in the bottom of the fifth, and a scoreless bottom of the sixth. Justin Anderson and Fraser Ellard then pitched 1-2-3 innings in the seventh and eighth.

One complaint I had over the first two games of this series was that even though the Giants won both games, they were much closer than they should have been against a team like the White Sox. Unfortunately, Wednesday was the same story, and the Giants would pay for it big time in the ninth.

Erik Miller came in, as the game was still tied 2-2 in the top of the ninth. Miller got off to a good start, as he got Nicky Lopez to fly out to begin the inning. However, Robert walked and stole second. Benintendi also walked, and then Vaughn reached on an infield hit to load the bases.

Miller had his back against the wall, as the White Sox had the bases loaded with one out. Miller bounced back to strike out Sheets, and then Bob Melvin went to Spencer Bivens.

Korey Lee came up to the plate for the White Sox. Bivens quickly got ahead in the count 0-2, and was a strike away from getting out of it and sending the game to the bottom of the ninth still tied.

However, Lee took a pair of balls—pun or no pun intended—to even the count. Then he lined a sinker up the middle for a base-hit that scored a pair to give the Pale Hose a 4-2 lead. Lee had advanced to second on an error by center-fielder Grant McCray, and Lenyn Sosa singled to left to knock in a pair and make it 6-2.

It was a disastrous and embarrassing inning for the Giants. To add insult to injury, White Sox Interim Manager Grady Sizemore summoned former Giant John Brebbia, who was also one of the biggest characters on the Giants the last three years, for the bottom of the ninth.

Ramos led off the bottom of the ninth with his second double of the game. The Giants were now in a great position to bounce back and…..who am I kidding, Brebbia set down the next three, and the White Sox won 6-2.

Fraser Ellard got the win, and Erik Miller took the loss.

The Giants won the first two games against this awful White Sox’ team, but they made them both too close for comfort. Then Wednesday, they couldn’t even complete the easiest sweep of the season, and they lost in such an embarrassing way.

The Giants fall to 65-64, and on top of losing to the White Sox, they now have to begin a stretch in which 27 of their next 30 games will be against teams over .500.

The Giants flew to Seattle Wednesday afternoon, as they will embark on a six-game, two-city road trip. They will get a day off Thursday in the beautiful city of Seattle, and then they will start a three-game series in Seattle Friday, which will run through Sunday. That will be followed up with three in Milwaukee against the Brewers next Monday through Wednesday.

The pitching matchup for Friday’s series opener at T-Mobile Park has still yet to be announced. The only thing for certain is that yours truly will be there, and with the fact that it will be cold and rainy like Northern California in the winter, that makes me very happy. Not to worry, they have a roof up there. Just give us one sunny day.

First pitch on Friday will be at 7:10 p.m.

National League Wild Card Standings:

*1. Diamondbacks 72-56 +4.0

*2. Padres 72-56 +4.0

3. Braves 67-59 —

Mets 66-61 1.5

GIANTS 65-64 3.5

Cardinals 62-64 5.0

*Reds 62-65 5.5

*Cubs 62-65 5.5

*Tiebreakers taken into account.