During the television broadcast, Jason Benetti said: “It’s been a tough year for Yonder Alonso.”
Today’s performance didn’t help matters, as Alonso committed a costly error and couldn’t hit a ball in play with runners in scoring position to tie or give the Sox a lead late. Paired with Ivan Nova’s rough start, the Sox lost 7-4 to Texas in their last game at Globe Life Park.
In the second inning, after James McCann singled and Eloy Jimenez worked a walk, the White Sox were in a good position to strike first on the scoreboard. Alonso hit the ball hard but on the ground with an exit velocity of 104 mph, but shortstop Elvis Andrus made a great stab at starting an easy 6-4-3 double play turning the inning around.
OME. (Oh My Elvis.) pic.twitter.com/4E1305JlP1
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) June 23, 2019
Tim Anderson would end the inning with a fly out to straight center field leaving McCann stranded at third base.
Bottom of the second inning started with Rougned Odor with a hustle double beating out Eloy Jimenez’s throw to second. Odor would later score on a sacrifice fly from Ronald Guzman to make it 1-0. With two outs, Nova was in a good position facing the weak-hitting catcher Tim Federowicz to limit the damage. In the Texas heat, the ball can carry, and it sure did for Federowicz as he hit his second home run of the season to make it 2-0.
Shin-Soo Choo hit a chopper to first base that should have ended the inning. Instead, Alonso misplayed the chopper not able to glove it cleanly for the error continuing the inning for Texas. Danny Santana made the White Sox pay by hitting a two-run homer to bust the game open and giving the Rangers a 4-0 lead.
Down 5-0 going into the fifth inning, the White Sox offense finally produced a run. Singles from Jimenez, Alonso, and Anderson cut the deficit to four runs while still cooking with runners on first and second. However, they would be stuck in place as Yolmer Sanchez struck out, Ryan Cordell popped out to foul territory, and Leury Garcia’s line drive was hit right at Ronald Guzman to end the threat.
Nova got through six innings which ended on a terrific play by Ryan Cordell. Guzman hit a hard line drive heading to the right field corner when Cordell made a diving catch. Delino DeShields was on first base but misread the play as he kept on running. That allowed Cordell to get up and make a throw to first base for the 9-3 double play. Nova’s final line was 6 IP 8 H 5 R 3 ER 1 BB 6 K, which is good enough to lower his season ERA below 6.00 (5.91). Carson Fulmer entered the seventh inning and threw the ball well striking out his first two batters on the way to a 1-2-3 inning.
Rangers starter Adrian Sampson pitched well. In seven innings of work, Sampson allowed seven hits but just the one run with one walk and four strikeouts. Replacing Sampson to start the eighth was rookie reliever Peter Fairbanks.
Ryan Cordell got the rally started with a single to left field and advanced to second base when Fairbanks walked Leury Garcia on four pitches. Moncada battled to a full count but could only come up with a fly out to left field for the first out. Abreu put the ball on the ground but hard enough to right field loading the bases for McCann. Another full count and Fairbanks couldn’t get McCann to chase walking in a run, and it was a 5-2 ballgame.
Still with the bases loaded and one out, Rangers manager Chris Woodward replaced Fairbanks with left-handed reliever Brett Martin to face Eloy Jimenez. An odd decision, but Jimenez hit a rocket line drive but it was right at DeShields in center field for what should have been a sacrifice fly.
However, DeShields didn’t catch the line drive. It deflected off his glove allowing two runs to score, and suddenly the White Sox were only down by one run with runners on second and third. Next was Yonder Alonso, and after whiffing on a 94-mph fastball low in the zone, whiffed on a breaking pitch for the second out. A costly out in a prime position to at least tie the game with a ball in play.
It was left up to Anderson in picking up his teammate. Woodward again went to the bullpen for Shawn Kelley, which right-handers only have a .502 OPS against him in 2019. Fouling off high fastball after high fastball, Anderson worked the count to full watching a fastball drop low out of the zone. Kelley threw a 3-2 slider off the plate that Anderson whiffed on for the strikeout and escaping out of the jam.
Kelvin Herrera took over for Fulmer and allowed a single to Andrus. After stealing second base, Andrus would score on Nomar Mazara’s double that sailed to the center field wall. In the three games, Mazara was 6-for-12 with three homers and a double driving in six RBI and would come around to score on DeShields single giving Texas a 7-4 lead.
Garcia would come up with a single after Choo’s diving attempt failed in the ninth, but he would catch Moncada’s line drive to end the game and giving Kelley the save.
Game Notes:
- White Sox finish 48-64 all-time at Globe Life Park.
- James McCann finished 2-for-4 raising his batting average to .324 and a .895 OPS.
- Yonder Alonso did hit a single, so it was not all bad for the struggling first baseman. After going 1-for-4, Alonso raised his season batting average to .178 and a .580 OPS.
Record: 36-39 | Box Score | Highlights
