Alex Wood was ambushed Tuesday night, as his first pitch of the game was hit for a solo home run by Tim Anderson. The Chicago White Sox clung to their 1-0 lead through five innings and were unable to hold off the Los Angeles Dodgers late.
Miguel Gonzalez navigated some traffic through the first five innings, then found himself in trouble in the bottom of the sixth after allowing back-to-back one-out singles to Cody Bellinger and Yasmani Granal.
Yasiel Puig followed with a walk to load the bases, and Logan Forsythe’s sacrifice fly tied the game. Gonzalez and the White Sox caught a small break as Grandal was caught attempting to tag and take third base, resulting in an inning-ending double play.
Wood allowed a leadoff double in the seventh and faced a situation with the go-ahead run at third base with one out. He retired Adam Engel and struck out pinch-hitter Alen Hanson to keep the game locked in a tie.
That held until the bottom of the eighth, which saw the Dodgers rally for five runs. It began innocently enough on a Justin Turner leadoff single. He was replaced on the bases by Bellinger, who grounded into a force out.
Grandal and Yasiel Puig both walked to load the bases with one out. Forsythe’s grounder to third base resulted in an out at home plate, but still left the bases full. That put the spotlight on Joc Pederson and his month-long slump.
Pederson had the pressure taken off him as he was hit by a pitch to bring in the go-ahead run. “Hey Joc,” Kenley Jansen began to rib his teammate postgame. “That was really big. Way to finally come through.”
Austin Barnes delivered a pinch-hit, two-run single and after Chris Taylor legged out an infield single, Corey Seager drove in two runs with his base hit. The Dodgers’ 6-1 victory was their 37 comeback win this season and they improved to a whopping 50 games over .500.
