White Sox win streak hits 5, but Rodón hurt

The White Sox extended their win streak to five with a 6-4 victory over the Brewers on Monday night at Miller Park, but it came at a price -- they lost their starting pitcher to injury, with no clear-cut replacements if one is needed.

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Six innings before Leury García scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by David Phelps, left-hander Carlos Rodón, making just his second start since returning from Tommy John surgery, was removed from the game before the third with left shoulder soreness. A day later, the White Sox placed the left-hander on the 10-day injured list.

Manager Rick Renteria noticed Rodón was “fidgeting” in the first inning, but the pitcher didn’t complain about any discomfort when he returned to the dugout. When Rodón’s velocity noticeably dipped in the second, the decision to remove him was an obvious one.

“We were already talking about it, and once he came in [after the second], he just said he was feeling a little something in his neck,” Renteria said. “The ball wasn’t coming out of his hand right, which is what we could see. We were already prepared to make a change at that point, because we saw what it looked like. We had him checked out.”

The 27-year-old Rodón looked strong at the outset -- he threw nine straight strikes to open the game, but he also allowed two hits and a run in the 13-pitch first inning. He then yielded a base hit to Manny Piña with one out in the second before recording quick outs of Orlando Arcia (flyout) and Ben Gamel (groundout) to escape further damage.

Rodón’s fastball maxed out at 92.2 mph in the first frame, but it dipped quickly, hitting a low of 85.6 mph in the second.

The drop was noticed by the other dugout.

“We faced him in that exhibition game over there [in Chicago on July 22], and he probably had 4-5 mph more on his fastball,” Brewers right fielder Ben Gamel said. “I remember looking at [Brewers hitting coach Andy Haines] when I was going up to bat like, 'Is his velo down today?'"

Rodón was replaced in the third by right-hander Matt Foster, who logged three strikeouts and a walk in two innings.

With Rodón sidelined, the White Sox will have to scour their thin rotation depth for help. Without top pitching prospect Michael Kopech, who opted out, as well as Reynaldo López and Jimmy Lambert, who are both on the injured list, this was one area with little to no margin for error.

Ross Detwiler, who has starting experience -- he started 12 games for the Sox last year -- could step into the rotation, and at this point is probably the front-runner. But that would weaken the bullpen, where he has been nearly untouchable. Detwiler has pitched 8 1/3 scoreless innings and was heroic again on Monday, working out of a seventh-inning jam that included a single, wild pitch and an error to keep the score tied at 4.

Detwiler said he’d be a willing participant if asked to move to the rotation.

“I’ve been a starter most of my career, that's what I'm used to,” he said. “I'm falling into a role now that I'm very comfortable with, but if they ask me to start, then I'll try to go out there with the same mindset I've been having out of the bullpen now. I think it's been working for me.”

The other options aren’t as enticing. The club recently signed veteran lefty Clayton Richard to a Minor League deal, but he is working out at the club’s alternate training site in Schaumburg and likely wouldn’t be ready to step into a starting role yet.

They could turn to No. 6 prospect Dane Dunning, who missed all of 2019 after undergoing Tommy John surgery and is currently being stretched out as a starter at Schaumburg.

Renteria declined to speculate on the immediate future, but he sounded amenable when asked specifically about moving Detwiler to the rotation.

“I would say that you never take anything off the table, and I'll just leave it at that,” Renteria said. “It's a unique time right now. Everybody's trying to get through the beginning of this whole thing and see if you can get it to carry out a little bit further to the end. We'll just continue to make adjustments as needed.

“I'm not going to limit and I don’t think the organization will limit what you can or cannot do. We've got to be flexible. It’s just at this particular time it’s the moment which we’re in.”

The outcome of the game provided better news for the White Sox, who were lifted in part by home runs from Yoán Moncada and José Abreu, the latter launching a game-tying two-run shot off Phelps in the seventh inning that traveled 421 feet to straightway center, with an exit velocity of 105.4 mph.

Moncada’s 353-foot solo shot off Corey Knebel in the ninth gave the Sox an insurance run, sealing their sixth win of the season.