Baldwin shows his potential in strong game vs. Giants

SAN FRANCISCO -- A year before the White Sox selected Brooks Baldwin in the 12th round of the 2022 Draft, the Giants picked him 15th. The two sides haggled over a signing bonus, but the Giants did not offer enough to keep Baldwin from returning to the University of North Carolina Wilmington and finishing his degree in exercise physiology.

On Monday night, Baldwin showed the Giants what they could have had, a versatile speedster with some of the tools that could make him a leadoff hitter in time. Wherever he hits in the lineup, the switch-hitting rookie is the kind of asset the White Sox will need as they rebuild for the future.

While the Sox fell, 5-3, their 29th loss in the past 32 games, Baldwin made life difficult for a Giants team that sits on the outskirts of playoff contention. He reached base all four times from the ninth spot with a bunt single, two walks and a single to right that started a promising (but futile) rally against Jordan Hicks in the ninth. Baldwin also stole his third base of the season.

The walks were just his fifth and sixth of the year in 96 plate appearances. Baldwin knows that he can boost his chances of sticking in the Majors if he walks more, which also would allow him to showcase his speed on the bases. For now the Sox do not want Baldwin to change his swing-happy approach.

Baldwin can hit the ball hard, and even if he doesn’t, he has the speed to turn potential outs on the ground into hits.

“I’m very aggressive at the plate,” Baldwin said. “I think my idea of the strike zone is very good, and even with two strikes, on pitches that are close, I still want to try to put a bat on them and put them in play. Take it out of the umpire’s hands. But when you get your chance to take your walks, you should take them.”

Baldwin got the bunt sign with two on and nobody out in the third inning. Even though Giants starter Kyle Harrison reached the ball relatively quickly, his throw to first was too late. The bases-loaded rally fizzled, though, when Harrison struck out Lenyn Sosa and Luis Robert Jr. hit a double-play ball that second baseman Thairo Estrada barely reached.

Baldwin walked and scored Chicago’s first run in the fifth, on Robert’s two-out single, and with the Sox down 5-3, Baldwin singled to start the ninth and bring the tying run to the plate. Robert’s one-out single and a Curt Casali passed ball sent the potential tying runs into scoring position.

The Sox had the right two hitters coming to the plate with a shot to tie the game, Andrew Vaughn and Korey Lee, but both flied out to seal the 96th White Sox loss.

They fell to 2-7 under interim manager Grady Sizemore, who nonetheless praised the team for playing opportunistically and making the 64-63 Giants sweat.

“I thought we had good at-bats all night,” Sizemore said. “We’re putting pressure on them getting guys on. We’ve got to keep working, got to keep executing. Even though we got down we kept fighting.”

Jonathan Cannon’s off night made the fight harder. The rookie right-hander needed a shutdown inning in the fifth after the Sox took a 1-0 lead in the top half. Instead, he surrendered four runs on five straight one-out hits and a sacrifice fly.

The Giants did not exactly pound Cannon. Only one hit in that inning traveled over 100 mph. Three of the hits, including Tyler Fitzgerald’s key double, were 80 mph or slower.

“Some of them were cheap hits, but they weren’t great pitches either,” Cannon said, blaming himself for throwing too many hittable pitches at times when “chase” pitches off the plate would have been the better call.

The Giants extended their 4-1 lead on Matt Chapman’s 20th homer to start the sixth, which Cannon completed.

Lee’s eighth-inning double keyed a two-run rally that began with Robert hustling for a hit on a fairly routine grounder to short. The runs scored on a Miguel Vargas sacrifice fly and Gavin Sheets’ pinch-hit single. But with two out, submariner Tyler Rogers struck out pinch-hitter Andrew Benintendi to preserve the Giants’ 5-3 lead.

The Sox had 11 hits, but in a familiar refrain went 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position.