Under many circumstances, Brooks Baldwin turning around a 99 mph Mason Miller fastball for a two-run homer in the ninth inning would register as a major triumph.
Tonight, it only qualified as a personal victory, because the White Sox trailed by three. Instead, it inadvertently extended the inning to Luis Robert Jr., and highlighted another ugly night for him.
Robert came to the plate as the White Sox's last chance in an inning where the usually invincible Miller felt gettable. He came into the game with 17 strikeouts against five baserunners allowed over eight innings, but the moribund White Sox offense somehow had him timed. Lenyn Sosa led off with a 101.6-mph single through the right side, and Baldwin followed by whipping Miller's inside-corner fastball inside the right-field foul pole to narrow the Athletics' lead to 6-5.
"He’s just a guy who throws a lot of fastballs, likes his heater, I was standing in right field for probably two innings visualizing an at-bat off of him," Baldwin said. "I do that a lot on the bench, more than during the game. But if I know a situation might be entailed during the game, I will run it through my head for an inning or two."
Miller recovered to retire Miguel Vargas and Edgar Quero, but not in a way that inspired confidence. Vargas smoked a lineout to center, and Quero came within a few feet of his first career homer, but Lawrence Butler was able to catch it against the right field wall.
"It was pretty close if he hadn't caught it," said Will Venable. "Obviously with the low wall there."
That's when Robert strode to the plate ... and struck out on three sliders. He took one middle-middle, swung over one at the bottom of the zone, and flailed at one well off the plate to end it.
Robert's strikeout might have been less conspicuous had he not also committed a game-changing error in the sixth inning. With the White Sox leading 3-1, Sacramento had runners on first and second with two outs when Jack Wilson lined a single to center. It was always going to score one, but a charging Robert let the ball clank off his glove and into the left-center gap, which allowed JJ Bleday to score all the way from first to tie the game.
"The ball just dropped," Robert said via interpreter. "Honestly I thought I had that on my glove and it wasn’t there."
The White Sox weren't well-positioned to hold the Athletics scoreless over the final three innings, at least if you don't consider Jared Shuster a high-leverage reliever. He relieved Sean Burke after a one-out walk, and while he struck out Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker was able to hook a first-pitch changeup just inside the left-field line, and Max Schuemann scored all the way from first give Oakland a 4-3 lead. Tyler Soderstrom sliced a single to center to make it a two-run game before the third out.
Shuster then started the eighth and gave up two straight hits and sac fly, which turned out to be needed insurance.
Up until the Robert error, Will Venable's opener gambit had a chance of paying off. Tyler Gilbert pitched a scoreless first and handed the ball to Burke, who responded well to the delayed assignment. He kept it a scoreless game through the fourth with incomplete command of a complete arsenal. He sprayed his fastball a little bit, but made up for it with better breaking ball command.
Alas, some breaking balls in the zone got him in trouble, and prevented him from logging shutdown innings after the White Sox scored.
In the fifth, Vargas came through with a two-out single off Luis Severino for a sorely needed hit with runners in scoring position and the game's first run, but the lead lasted two pitches. His 1-0 slider to Jacob Wilson spun over the inside corner, and Wilson hoisted it out to left for a game-tying solo shot.
"Just a backup slider," Burke said. "It's just frustrating that I feel like I threw the ball well. It was really those two pitches to Wilson where the first slider was a bad slider and the second one I felt like I got to a decent spot. He was just able to get the head out. I think just maybe have a little bit more trust in my fastball in some situations and make pitches that I'll be able to sleep at night with if they're able to hit it."
An inning later, Nick Maton came through with two-out magic, doubling out of the reach of Butler in right to score Robert. Maton then came home himself when Matt Thaiss' floated to center evaded the diving attempt of Bleday in center, making it a 3-1 game. That lead also didn't survive the ensuing half-inning.
Bullet points:
*Robert finished 1-for-4 with a walk and three strikeouts. The other time he reached was nullified by an unsuccessful stolen base attempt, thanks to a slide that carried him off the bag.
"My strikeouts have been sliders in good locations on the corners, on the edges," Robert said via interpreter. "Credit to them. They have been throwing that pitch in a very good location and I haven’t been able to get there."
*The starters in the top four spots (Joshua Palacios, Robert, Andrew Benintendi, Andrew Vaughn) went 1-for-15 with two walks and seven strikeouts. The bottom five spots went 8-for-19 with all four extra-base hits.
*The attendance at the White Sox's first game at Sutter Health Park was short of a sellout (10,283).
*Tyler Gilbert will open things again for the Sox on Saturday, protecting Jonathan Cannon from the top of the A's order.
