CHICAGO — The Chicago White Sox might have no more valuable asset than left-hander Garrett Crochet – whether they make the 25-year-old likely All-Star a central piece of their future infrastructure or trade him in the next month for rebuilding supplies.
So they are naturally protective of Crochet (who missed the 2022 season recovering from – of course – Tommy John surgery). He has pitched beyond the sixth inning just twice in 17 starts this season and thrown as many as 95 pitches just three times.
They didn’t let him get there Monday night against the Dodgers either. Crochet came out after holding the Dodgers scoreless for 5⅔ innings (and 91 pitches). With Crochet gone, the Dodgers stitched together just enough offense to beat the team with the worst record in baseball, 3-0.
The five-hit shutout by James Paxton and four relievers was briefly interrupted by rain in the seventh inning but resumed after only 30 minutes.
The Dodgers managed a pair of infield hits off of Crochet in the first inning but stranded them. A hit batter and a single put two runners on again in the third but nothing came of that either.
At the same time, Paxton had his usual assortment of traffic thanks to three walks in his five innings, to go with three hits allowed. But he struck out Paul DeJong with two on to end the first inning then struck out Eloy Jimenez and DeJong again to strand two more in the third.
Paxton’s lack of swing-and-miss has been troublesome for much of his season, but he had a season-high 15 swings-and-misses in seven innings against the Colorado Rockies last week and topped that with 18 in his five scoreless innings against the White Sox.
Paxton streamlined his pitch mix against the White Sox, throwing a four-seam fastball and curveball almost exclusively. He only threw four changeups.
The Dodgers’ breakthrough came in the seventh against reliever Steven Wilson.
Miguel Rojas led off with a double, went to third on a ground out then scored on a double by Kiké Hernandez. Hernandez scored on a throwing error by DeJong at shortstop.
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The double was Rojas’ second hit in the game. The Dodgers are now 23-0 in games when Rojas has at least one hit.
After a two-out walk to Shohei Ohtani, a sudden downpour interrupted play.
The Dodgers left the bases loaded when play resumed but the brief two-run shower was enough. Ohtani added a sacrifice fly in the ninth, extending his RBI streak to eight games (though his concurrent extra-base hit and run scored streaks ended at seven).
Daniel Hudson, Yohan Ramirez, Evan Phillips and Alex Vesia completed the shutout.
But it was Andy Pages who earned the save. The rookie centerfielder made an outstanding sliding catch in the seventh inning, scooping Nicky Lopez’s shallow fly ball off the turf, then ran down DeJong’s drive to the warning track with a runner on to end the eighth.
More to come on this story.