Before it got better for the White Sox on Friday, their disastrous season somehow became worse with a brutal stretch in the third inning that ended with the Red Sox stealing home when Garrett Crochet overthrew an appeal attempt at first base.
Everything started when Crochet committed an error after fielding Jarren Duran’s grounder and attempting to throw out the Red Sox outfielder at first.
And since Crochet couldn’t connect with first baseman Andrew Vaughn on his throw, it allowed Duran to advance to third.
But then the weirdness began.
The White Sox held a conference on the mound, according to Sports Illustrated, and once that ended, Crochet threw the ball back toward Vaughn in an apparent appeal — perhaps trying to claim that Duran never touched first base before pivoting and tearing toward second.
The ball sailed past Vaughn, though, and that allowed Duran to score easily without a throw, scoring Boston’s second run of the inning.
“That’s what bad teams do,” NESN analyst Will Middlebrooks said following the chaos.
Bobby Dalbec had originally scored after the first throw from Crochet skipped past Vaughn, giving the Red Sox an early 2-1 lead.
Given the White Sox’s current trajectory, that sequence could’ve been disastrous.
They’ve generated the fewest runs in MLB this season (193) and have the league’s worst team batting (.216), and Chicago entered Friday with a 14-game losing streak.
The White Sox have won a league-worst 16 games and already sat more than 20 games back in the American League Central division, too.
But they ripped off six consecutive runs to defeat the Red Sox, 7-2, with Gavin Sheets and Vaughn hitting back-to-back homers in the sixth inning.
Crochet tossed six innings and picked up the win to lower his ERA to 3.33, striking out 10 batters and scattering three hits.
Still, even with two outs in the ninth inning, the White Sox gave the Red Sox an extra chance when Duke Ellis judged a line drive poorly and dropped the ball — allowing Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela to reach first base.
The sequence in the third frame, though, will serve as the strangest one from a strange season for the White Sox.