Crochet pitches 5 2/3, but White Sox blanked by Dodgers

Manager Pedro Grifol had a strategy for trying to contain Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani.

“Yeah, try not to pitch to him,” Grifol said before the White Sox lost 3-0 to the Dodgers on Monday in front of 25,070 fans at Guaranteed Rate Field. “He’s one of the hottest hitters on the planet right now.”

Ohtani had homered in his previous three games, but Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet, who tossed 5 2/3 innings of scoreless ball, also is hot with a 1.53 ERA in his last 11 starts. And he challenged Ohtani and cooled him off, as well, striking him out in the first and fifth innings and getting the left-handed slugger on a groundout in the third.

Grifol pulled Crochet with his pitch count at 91, a workload-management move as Crochet, whose career high for innings was 54 1/3 innings in 2021 as a reliever, reached 94 1/3 innings.

“I could throw 130 pitches and be cool. That’s how I felt like I was tonight,” Crochet said. “But with where the innings are at, I definitely understand where everybody’s coming from, trying to monitor things. But every game matters, so I want to pitch every game like it’s going to be my last. I don’t really want to take my foot off the gas for a second.”

Dodgers left-hander James Paxton held the Sox scoreless over five innings, and Daniel Hudson pitched a scoreless sixth before the Dodgers broke a scoreless tie on Enrique Hernandez’s RBI double. Shortstop Paul DeJong’s throwing error on Chris Taylor’s ground ball allowed Hernandez to score.

Ohtani did hit a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning off Michael Kopech. But he is now 0-for-5 with four strikeouts against Crochet in his career.

“Those are the matchups that you want,” said Crochet, who also struck out Ohtani in his first spring training outing this year. Those are the matchups that you go to bed thinking about the night before. That’s how it’s been every time I’ve faced him. Just got to know I have to be on my A game to get him out.”

A rain delay in the Dodgers’ seventh after an Ohtani walk lasted 30 minutes.

Eloy carries on

A day after returning from the injured list and playing through hamstring soreness Sunday, designated hitter Eloy Jimenez was in the lineup batting fourth.

“Every report I got today was that he was feeling pretty good,” Grifol said. “And [Sunday], I think he said on turns that it might have bothered him a little bit but on straightaways he felt good. We’ll see how it works out today in the game.”

The 6-4, 250-pound Jimenez singled to center, struck out and grounded out his first three times to the plate and appeared to be moving better Monday.

“After injuries like that, I don’t think guys are ever going to be 100 percent, especially mentally,” Grifol said. “They don’t want to get hurt again. Hundred percent, for me, is no pain and no care in the world about getting hurt because they feel great.

“And when you have an injury like that, you might not have no pain or no discomfort, but your mind’s got to be free, too, to where you can go get it.”

This and that

• The Sox Double-A Birmingham affiliate clinched the Southern League first-half Northern Division title to claim its first postseason berth since 2013. Low-A Kannapolis of the Carolina League also secured a first-half title.
• Triple-A Charlotte outfielder Mark Payton was named International Player of the Week after batting .478 with three homers and three doubles.