Kopech's flawless month of May takes surprising turn

CHICAGO – White Sox closer Michael Kopech had been untouched during the month of May entering Saturday afternoon’s contest against the Orioles at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Seven games with eight strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings and three saves among the five games he finished. That unblemished run ended at the wrong time on Saturday, as the right-hander gave up Anthony Santander’s game-winning two-run home run with one out in the eighth as the White Sox lost, 5-3, to the Orioles.

The Orioles scored five runs in the eighth to erase a 3-0 deficit, with homers from Ryan O’Hearn and Jordan Westburg sandwiched around Santander’s 395-foot blast (per Statcast).

“It’s baseball, I don’t expect to be scoreless every single time. If I was, it’d be a perfect career, which is unheard of,” Kopech said. “That being said, there’d be a more ideal time to give up a run than the ones I have … I’ve got to wear that one for a little bit.”

Erick Fedde continued his home dominance for the White Sox by throwing 6 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball against one of the game’s top teams, allowing three hits and three walks with six strikeouts. He is 4-0 with a 0.95 ERA (four earned runs over 38 innings) and 36 strikeouts during his six home starts this year.

Fedde ran into a little bit of trouble in the seventh, giving way to Jordan Leasure with runners on first and second and one out. But Leasure struck out Kyle Stowers and pinch-hitter Cedric Mullins to end the threat.

Leasure returned for the eighth and was touched up for O’Hearn’s two-run homer after issuing a one-out walk to Adley Rutschman. Kopech replaced the rookie, who entered Saturday with a 1.50 ERA at home and a 1.04 ERA over nine games in May with just one homer allowed.

Following Ryan Mountcastle's single to right (off a 99.5 mph four-seam fastball), Santander connected on an 0-1 pitch.

“He left a pitch out over the plate to Santander and that was it,” said White Sox manager Pedro Grifol. “I’m sure that’s not where Michael wanted to throw it,or Maldy [catcher Martín Maldonado] wanted it. But that’s where it ended up. Just a good piece of hitting. … Tough loss. That one hurt. They all hurt, but this one really hurt.”

“They’ve been amazing,” Fedde said of Leasure and Kopech. “I know it’s easy to look at right this second, but if you look at the big picture, they’ve been amazing. Those are guys I definitely enjoy handing the ball off [to].”

Gavin Sheets’ fifth-inning, bases-clearing triple against southpaw Keegan Akin gave the White Sox (15-38) that 3-0 lead they carried into the eighth. The left-handed-hitting Sheets had only 12 hits and 10 RBIs in 98 career at-bats against left-handed pitching before he laced the 1-2 fastball against the right-center-field wall.

His lefty-on-lefty success looked as if it would be one of the main stories of the game, until Baltimore changed the narrative in the eighth for the White Sox eighth loss in nine games -- all against American League East opponents.

“Yeah. I know what I did wrong on that cutter. I flew open, it backed up, stayed on the outer half of the plate,” Kopech said of that game-changing pitch to Santander. “He got to see it the whole way in, and he was ready for it, put a good swing on it.

“I like throwing in the back-end [of games]. There’s days that feel a little bit different than others, but you’ve got to find a way. That’s just part of the role of being a reliever. Hopefully I’m back out there tomorrow and have better results. … I’m sorry that Fedde didn’t get the win there. He pitched a great game.”