KEUCHEL DECISION LOOMING
Latest bad outing puts rotation spot in question
It’s never good when you’re pretty much out of a game before the sun goes down.
But that seemed to be the case Thursday, when White Sox lefthander Dallas Keuchel allowed three runs to the Red Sox in each of the first two innings in a 16-7 loss at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Keuchel, one of three $18 million players at the top of the Sox’ payroll this season (along with Jose Abreu and Yasmani Grandal) but the weakest link in the starting rotation, gave up six runs and seven hits, including two home runs. With the score 6-0, Keuchel was booed on an otherwisebeautiful night for baseball.
Keuchel’s outing, which raised his ERA to 7.88, was short and loaded with crooked numbers, including four strikeouts and two walks. Andrew Vaughn did all he could to repair the damage against Keuchel with a career-high five RBI on a bases-clearing double in the third and a two-run homer in the fifth.
But a night after climbing above the .500 mark behind a gritty performance by Lucas Giolito and a three-run homer by Jake Burger, Keuchel put the Sox in a six-run hole. He allowed Kike Hernandez’s second leadoff homer of the series before giving up four more hits that produced two more runs in the first.
Keuchel left the bases loaded by striking out ninth-place hitter Christian Arroyo to end the inning, but he still heard it from a restless crowd.
In the second, Trevor Story barely cleared left fielder AJ Pollock’s leaping attempt at the fence, dropping his ninth homer — a three-run shot — into the bullpen and dropping a load of gloom and doom on the crowd of 24,896.
Whether the Sox carry on with Keuchel, a former Cy Young Award winner who hasn’t pitched well since 2020, in the rotation for much longer bears watching. He’s in the last year of a three-year, $55 million contract that includes a vesting option for 2023 if he pitches 160 innings this season.
The Sox’ rotation is otherwise in good shape with Giolito, Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and Johnny Cueto. Vince Velasquez provides depth, and Lance Lynn is expected back in two or three weeks.
Keuchel held the Red Sox to two runs in six innings May 8 at Fenway Park, then pitched five scoreless innings against the Yankees on May 14 at home. After that game, Keuchel said he was disappointed manager Tony La Russa pulled him after five.
‘‘We, the team, were mostly appreciative and excited about the five innings he pitched,’’ La Russa said. ‘‘His history — since I’ve been here — in the sixth inning has been not good.’’
In his next start, Keuchel gave up six runs in four innings against the Yankees on Saturday at Yankee Stadium.
Then came Thursday.
The Sox pulled to 6-3 on Vaughn’s double into the right-field corner after Leury Garcia, Adam Engel and Tim Anderson had singled with no outs.
Jose Ruiz allowed a run in the fifth before Vaughn lifted his fifth homer into the left-field seats with Engel aboard in the bottom of the inning to make it 7-5.
The Red Sox, however, kept piling it on, roughing up Tanner Banks for six runs and seven hits in 1‰ innings. When La Russa finally pulled Banks, things went from bad to embarrassing when Bennett Sousa overthrew first baseman Jose Abreu on a grounder to the mound that scored the Red Sox’ 13th and 14th runs. Both were charged to Banks.
Infielder Josh Harrison pitched the ninth for the Sox, allowing a two-run homer to Story.
The Red Sox finished with 19 hits, including four by Alex Verdugo and three each by J.D. Martinez, Story and Christian Vazquez.