Some bad, bad injuries
The first-ever All-Star Game was played at Comiskey Park. The White Sox won a coin flip with the Cubs for the right to host the game that was the idea of Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward, and was played in connection with the Chicago World’s Fair that started in May along the lakefront. The American League won the game, 4-2, thanks to a home run by Babe Ruth in the third inning off of Bill Hallahan.
The Sox representatives in that first game were Jimmy Dykes (3B) and Al Simmons (OF). Dykes scored the first-ever All-Star run.
Virgil Trucks threw a one-hitter at Detroit, beating the Tigers, 4-0. It would be the second one-hitter thrown by Trucks in little more than two months; on May 1, he had beaten Boston at Fenway Park, 3-0, with a one-hitter. In this game, the only hit Trucks allowed came in the third inning, when Harvey Kuenn singled to center. Trucks struck out eight in the game.
For the season, Trucks would go 19-12 with a 2.79 ERA, and he’d save the All-Star Game in Cleveland for the American League.
The golden anniversary All-Star Game was held at Comiskey Park, hosting the game for the third time. The American League mangled the National League, 13-3, stopping an 11-game losing streak. Chicago native Fred Lynn of the Angels hit the game’s first-ever grand slam, off of San Francisco’s Atlee Hammaker (who’d later go on to pitch for the Sox).
Ron Kittle, who’d go on to win the 1983 AL Rookie of the Year, got an infield single in the seventh inning. He was the South Siders’ lone representative.
Chris Singleton became the first White Sox rookie to ever hit for the cycle, when he turned the trick against Kansas City. It was also the first cycle hit by a White Sox player in their eight-plus seasons at the New Comiskey Park. The Sox would lose the game, however, 8-7, in 10 innings.
Singleton went 5-for-6 with three runs scored and four RBIs. He would later go on to be a Sox broadcaster for a short period of time.
The Minnesota Twins scored 32 runs and hammered eight home runs in a day/night twin bill at U.S. Cellular Field, winning 20-14 and 12-0. It was a low point for a franchise that had won the World Series less than two years earlier. Jon Garland and Gavin Floyd took the losses.
Facing Mike Napoli in the second inning of a start at Sox Park, Jake Peavy suffered an (officially) unprecedented injury: a complete tear of his lat (back) muscle. He would undergo experimental surgery on July 14 to heal.
At the time of injury, Peavy had made 17 starts, going 7-6 with a career-worst 4.63 ERA. The star righty did come through his possible career-ending injury and made his first start back on May 11, 2011, and would pitching in six more seasons after getting hurt.
The unbelievable injury run continued to plague the White Sox. Catcher Yasmani Grandal became the 15th different player and fourth key starter to go on the injured list for the club, with only a little more than half the season played. He was diagnosed with a torn tendon in his left knee, suffered the night before in Minnesota on a checked swing. A few days earlier in Detroit, he took himself out of the game with a tight calf muscle in the same leg. At the time he was among the club leaders in home runs, on-base percentage and among the league leaders in walks.
After a stint on the IL Grandal came back to put up impressive numbers, finishing the season with 23 home runs and 62 RBIs. In a game against the Cubs on August 27 he’d tie the team record by driving in eight runs in a 17-13 win.
Later that same night, with the Sox needing something positive, pitcher Carlos Rodón gave it to them. The lefthander kept the Twins in check for six innings, allowing one run and striking out eight as the Sox got a badly-needed win, 4-1. With the eight strikeouts, Rodón tied a club record (first set by Juan Pizarro back in 1961) with eight or more strikeouts in nine straight starts.
