Corey Julks hit a fly ball to shallow left field in the eighth inning Sunday at American Family Field.
The Chicago White Sox trailed the Milwaukee Brewers by a run, and Tommy Pham attempted to score from third base after left fielder Christian Yelich made the catch. Pham was out at the plate, as there was contact with catcher William Contreras on the slide, for an inning-ending double play. Words were exchanged afterward.
Coaches and teammates restrained Pham, who gave a rundown of the sequence in the clubhouse after the 6-3 Sox loss in front of 30,422 at American Family Field.
“One-run ballgame, close play at the plate — actually, it wasn’t even f—— close,” Pham said after the game. “It was a shallow fly ball to left field. You would expect the left fielder to throw the base runner out on that play.
“The situation of the game, you know, third-base coach (Eddie Rodríguez) sends you, you’ve got to go. I’m nailed out at home — by a mile. I’m going to the dugout and I hear the tough guy with all the hoo-rah s—.”
Pham continued, “So, I’ll never start anything but I’ll be prepared to finish it. There’s a reason why I do all kinds of fighting in the offseason because I’m prepared to f— somebody up. So, you can take it at what it is.”
Pham was HEATED after being thrown out at the plate pic.twitter.com/wooYjRCHqg
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) June 2, 2024
Manager Pedro Grifol said Rodríguez, “was just being aggressive,” in deciding to send Pham.
“It has to be a perfect throw, very few outs at home plate are made like that,” Grifol said. “If you put it all together over the course of a season, it’s got to be a really good throw and it was. It was right on line. I don’t have a problem with that at all. Tommy can run. He’s a good baserunner. It just happened that it was a good throw and he got thrown out by quite a bit.
“Throw’s offline a little bit and we’re having a different conversation. We’re kicking ourselves in the ass for not going, right? Just a good baseball play all the way around.”
The play capped a wild inning that started with a walk by Dominic Fletcher — who had ended the bottom of the seventh with an outstanding catch while crashing into the wall in right-center that took away a three-run home run from Contreras.
Fletcher advanced to second when Pham followed with a walk.
Zach Remillard ran for the banged-up Fletcher and tried to advance to third when a pitch briefly got away from Contreras. The catcher recovered and threw Remillard out.
Nicky Lopez hit a ground-rule double, giving the Sox runners on second and third with one out.
Then Julks’ fly ball, the inning-ending double play and a brief, lively discussion followed. The Brewers scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth to build a three-run cushion on the way to sending the Sox to a season-high 11th consecutive defeat.
It’s the longest losing streak for the Sox since an 11-game skid from July 7-18, 1956, according to the team. With a record of 15-45, the Sox now have their worst 60-game start in franchise history.
