The White Sox came within one hit of turning this makeup game at Rate Field into something far uglier.
Andrew Benintendi’s opposite-field single in the seventh inning was the lone thing that kept the Braves from combining on a no-hitter in Atlanta’s 2-0 win over the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon. Grant Holmes had carried that possibility through six innings, and when Benintendi finally broke it up, the Braves’ bullpen took over and slammed the door anyway.
Atlanta’s relief trio of Didier Fuentes, Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias finished the job with three perfect innings. They struck out eight of the nine batters they faced, and the White Sox never seriously threatened after Benintendi’s hit.
Anthony Kay was left with the loss despite giving Chicago a solid outing. He worked six-plus innings, allowed two runs on five hits and a walk, and struck out six. The damage came in small doses, but it was enough.
The Braves got on the board in the third when Mauricio Dubón singled to open the inning and scored from first on Austin Riley’s double into the empty left field corner. That was all Atlanta needed, but the visitors added another run after Kay returned for the seventh.
Kay started the inning against Michael Harris II and gave up a double to the right field corner. Huascar Brazobán came in and immediately found trouble. A deep flyout to right moved Harris to third, and with the infield drawn in, Riley shot a grounder through the middle for his second RBI hit of the game and a 2-0 lead.
Brazobán allowed another loud ball after that, a single by Sean Murphy, before striking out Ronald Acuña Jr. Hagen Smith took over and ended the inning by fanning Drake Baldwin, stopping the Braves at two.
Chicago’s offense never found much room to breathe. The White Sox did put together a few good swings against Holmes, and Statcast had nine hard-hit balls among their 16 batted balls, but Atlanta’s defense seemed to be waiting on nearly everything. The one exception was Benintendi’s single, which came after a Vargas walk and gave the Sox their only real rally of the day.
Fuentes entered and immediately neutralized the threat. He got Braden Montgomery on a slider that may have been low, though Montgomery hesitated before starting to challenge the pitch.
Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth both went down swinging on strike three, and Randal Grichuk’s routine fly to shallow left ended the inning. After that, the White Sox were done.
A few other notes from the afternoon:
- The White Sox are once again tied in the number of shutouts for and against, 9-9.
- Fuentes, Lee and Iglesias combined to get 11 whiffs on 15 swings over just three innings.
- Colson Montgomery and Drew Romo each drew walks for the Sox's only other baserunners of the afternoon.
- Smith retired all four batters he faced, three by strikeout.
Trevor Richards handled the ninth inning with little issue, so the back end of the bullpen got the day off without real sacrifice.
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