When the White Sox try to apply pressure, it often looks a lot like the first inning Sunday, when Chase Meidroth was thrown out by 20 feet while trying to turn Joshua Palacios' soft, shallow lineout into a sacrifice fly.
When the White Sox have pressure applied to them, it often looks like the sixth inning, in which a couple of defensive gaffes turned a manageable problem into an out-and-out crisis.
"With the elements, that added a layer of plays--probably four or five--that left us leaving here feeling like we played worse than we probably did in most areas," said Will Venable. "You see guys who have been in this league for a long time struggling with these elements, and this is a tough place to play even without the wind and sun."
Jonathan Cannon shook off a Pete Crow-Armstrong leadoff triple in the first, settling in to retire 13 in a row and keep the game tied at 1 entering the sixth inning. He fell into a full count against Vidal Bruján, and his grooved fastball to the No. 9 hitter was better than a walk, but it resulted in a solid single to right field to flip the lineup back over to Crow-Armstrong.
Another full count ensued, and when Cannon's attempt at a high cutter stayed middle-middle, Crow-Armstrong roped it past Tim Elko's diving attempt and along the right field line. The throw went to second, as it should have, because Bruján slowed up at third as the throw came in. But he sensed an opportunity to press the White Sox defense as Meidroth fielded the throw, and while Meidroth immediately went to locate Bruján's whereabouts, he first looked at the wrong place. That moment of inaction allowed Bruján to score on a dive around Edgar Quero's tag, as the replay proved inconclusive.
"I thought his hand might have missed the plate," Cannon said. "But if they called him out, it probably would have stood. If they called him safe, it was gonna stand. There just wasn't a lot of evidence you could see."
There was still a runner on second with nobody out and Kyle Tucker at the plate. But for a moment, you could see a glimpse of a future with no further damage when Tucker hit a high fly to medium left and slammed his bat in frustration. Then Brooks Baldwin began to dance with the wind-blown ball, and that's when the frustration reversed course and ended back on the White Sox's side. Baldwin dropped the popup, Crow-Armstrong took third, and Tucker made it to second on a swim move around Lenyn Sosa's tag. While Steven Wilson came in for Cannon, both runners scored, the first on a Seiya Suzuki sac fly, and the next on a Michael Busch single that gave the Cubs a 4-1 lead en route to a weekend sweep at Wrigley Field.
Evidence of the White Sox's irritation levels surfaced over the remainder of the game. Miguel Vargas took umbrage at Brad Keller when a 1-0 fastball drilled him in his upper arm with two on and nobody out in the eighth. Vargas stared down Keller around the plate and on his way to first, and then yelled at him after the third out, which prompted warnings to both dugouts. Justin Jirschele intercepted Vargas to keep peace during that incident, but then he got into a heated discussion with third-base umpire Brennan Miller, which required Will Venable to intervene.
"I just wanted to know what was his favorite restaurant, I just asked him about it," said Vargas, mastering tongue-in-cheek delivery of his second language. "He didn't say anything. I guess the guys from the bench said more about him than him."
If the series was closer, there might've been a point in targeting Vargas, who was the only White Sox player carrying the weight over the three games. He reached base three more times during a 2-for-3 game, which also included a game-tying solo shot off Colin Rea in the fourth inning. He fell behind 1-2, but he stretched the plate appearance into a full count. The seventh pitch was an up-and-in splitter that was so unexpectedly located that Vargas did the most apologetic of excuse-me swings that barely fouled off the pitch. The eight pitch was a fastball barely up, barely in, and Vargas sent it barely over the left field wall to knot the score at 1.
"I guess you face the price for doing good at the plate," Vargas said. "It is what it is. I just try to go out there and compete."
Had the series been a head-to-head matchup between Vargas and Crow-Armstrong, it would've been vastly more entertaining.
- Crow-Armstrong: 8-for-14, 4 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 8 RBI
- Vargas: 6-for-10, 3 R, 1 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 5 RBI
"He's kind of hit everything we've thrown him all weekend," Cannon said of Crow-Armstrong.
But baseball is a team game, and the White Sox are well short on team. Their only hit with runners in scoring position came down five in the ninth, when Lenyn Sosa singled to center after a Luis Robert Jr. leadoff double. Robert could only advance to third, but it set up Quero's run-scoring groundout to give the Sox a small cosmetic upgrade on the scoreboard.
Bullet points:
*Robert saw only five pitches over four plate appearances, but he joined Vargas with a two-hit game, including his first extra-base hit since May 1. Alas, he couldn't run down Crow-Armstrong's drive to left center in the first inning, as it glanced off his glove and off the wall for a triple. It would've been a difficult play, but it's the kind of play that becomes a lot more necessary when paired with a .574 OPS.
*Palacios' time in the No. 3 spot lasted only two plate appearances, because Venable pinch-hit Andrew Vaughn for him after Craig Counsell went with lefty Drew Pomeranz after a one-out single by Vargas in the sixth inning. It could've worked in the White Sox's favor, but Vaughn flied out.
*Miguel Castro stranded a pair of Brandon Eisert's runners in the seventh inning, but then gave up a run of his own in the eighth to briefly kick the game out of a slam's range. He's been scored upon in both appearances thus far, so he hasn't yet validated the White Sox's decision to send international pool money Houston's way.
*The Cubs now lead the Crosstown series 75-74, the first time they've been ahead since 2009.
