lamond pope, chicago tribune
·4 min read
ARLINGTON, Texas — Erick Fedde once again showed any inquiring team what he brings to the table.
The Chicago White Sox right-hander, who has been mentioned in trade speculation, pitched into the seventh inning Monday against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field.
He had exited by the time the Sox suffered another tough defeat, losing 4-3 in 10 innings in front of 30,832. Paul DeJong hit a go-ahead solo home run in the ninth for the Sox, but the Rangers tied it with a run in the bottom of the inning against reliever John Brebbia.
Wyatt Langford drove in the winning run for the Rangers in the 10th with a bases-loaded single against Steven Wilson. The Sox lost their eighth straight and have a major-league-leading 25 blown saves. At 27-75, they became the 12th team in major-league history to lose 75-plus times in the first 102 games.
“That was a gut punch,” manager Pedro Grifol said of the defeat.
It was, in part, because some strong pitching went to waste.
Fedde allowed two runs on three hits with five strikeouts and two walks in 6 1/3 innings.
“My sweeper was better than it’s been in a while,” Fedde said. “Been working on it a little bit, felt like it was a really big weapon today, but overall most things were good.”
The two runs came via solo home runs by Marcus Semien and Leody Taveras.
“His sweeper was really good,” Grifol said of Fedde. “He threw some good fastballs, used his cutter. He made two mistakes. Other than that, it was really good pitching.”
Fedde lowered his ERA to 2.98, which ranks eighth in the American League. He entered Monday with the third-best bWAR (4.4) among major-league pitchers.
Fedde hadn’t pitched since July 10 against the Minnesota Twins. He looked sharp after the extended break.
“Felt well-rested,” he said. “(The) team was gracious enough to give me some time just to feel good. For the most part, (I) felt pretty sharp, did the best I could to stay on top of things over the break.
“Outside of two pitches, felt really good.”
Fedde has not let trade rumors affect his performance.
“Obviously that (July 30 trade deadline) day is looming on the club,” Fedde said. “But we have to worry about doing our job on the field. Show up to work, do what is expected of me. And whatever happens, happens. It’s the only way to really look at it.”
Fedde’s day was done after a one-out walk in the seventh. Michael Kopech stranded that runner and then pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. DeJong gave the Sox a 3-2 lead with his 17th home run.
The Rangers tied it on a two-out RBI single by Jonah Heim. The Sox went down in order in the 10th, and the Rangers loaded the bases with two outs on back-to-back intentional walks before Langford ended it with his single.
Grifol thought Brebbia and Wilson threw good pitches, but the Rangers were able to win some battles. He pointed to missed opportunities early. The Sox went 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position and struck out 17 times.
“Anytime you have the lead late, you’d love to win,” Fedde said. “Sometimes that is the way it falls. Guys battled and that extra inning, if you’re not able to score, puts you in a tough situation. Being a road team in that spot is always tough. Tough loss.”
Injury updates
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Before the game, the Sox announced starting pitcher Mike Clevinger (right elbow inflammation) and third baseman Yoán Moncada (left adductor strain) had been returned from their injury rehab assignments.
Clevinger has been on the injured list since May 28 and Moncada since April 10.
“Moncada’s rehab was stopped with some anticipated soreness,” Grifol said before Monday’s game. “We’ll reevaluate that. We don’t think it’s anything wrong.
“Everything I’ve heard about that injury, even though you’re healed, it still feels similar to what it felt like when it first happened, but it’s not. So it’s almost like he wants to be sure he has no pain. Anticipated soreness that we want to err on the side of caution. There’s nothing where we feel he’s taken a step back.”
Grifol said of Clevinger, “We’ll reevaluate as we go.”
