On Tuesday night and in only his fourth start of the 2022 season, 27-year-old Dodgers right-hander Mitch White took a perfect game into the fifth inning. He would finish his 5.0 innings of work having allowed no runs and only two hits, with no walks, a hit batsman, and five strikeouts. He finished that fifth inning striking out the last two batters he faced … with the bases loaded.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that White’s relievers, 26-year-old right-hander Phil Bickford and 36-year-old left-hander David Price, each allowed two runs on two and three hits respectively in the Dodgers eventual 4-0 shutout loss to the American League Central second place Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field (Comiskey Park, for you old-schoolers).

All of that said, White Sox starter Michael Kopech was even more near perfect than was Mitch White. The Longview, TX native and Boston Red Sox first-round draft pick in 2014 out of Mount Pleasant High School finished his 6.0 innings of work having allow no runs and only one hit to arguably the best-hitting team in baseball.

“We’re just not executing,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame. “I say it every night when we don’t prevent runs, but these guys are good hitters. And when you don’t make your pitches, they’re gonna make you pay. … I can look back at the tape and I’m certain there’s some walks in there, and we’re not executing pitches.”

Price did, in fact, issue a walk – and it was an intentional walk to always-dangerous White Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada called for by … Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

“Just one of those stretches where we’re obviously not playing great,” echoed Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, who picked up his 1,000th hit as a Dodgers on Tuesday night. “I think we go through this all the time in baseball. It’s not going to get easy for us, everyone is playing their best baseball against us. We just have to figure out a way to play better.”

Yes, JT, you do.

…and fast.

Play Ball!

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