For the second straight game, the White Sox bullpen couldn't carry a one-run lead over the final three innings.
In the bullpen's defense, doing so this time would've resulted in a shutout of the Mets, which is hard to expect, and the White Sox offense should've been able to provide it a greater margin for error over the course of the afternoon.
As it stands, Steven Wilson put out a fire to keep the game tied in the eighth inning, but after Edwin Diaz pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, Wilson couldn't retire a batter before it mattered in the bottom of the inning. Tyrone Taylor led off with a double just out of the reach of a sliding Luis Robert Jr. on the left-center warning track, and while a Jeff McNeil intentional walk set up a potential double play, Luis Torrens foiled it by lining a high fastball into left field to load the bases, setting up a Francisco Lindor game-winning sac fly to deep right.
All three runs in this game scored via the sac fly, and unfortunately for the Sox, the Mets had two of them. Cam Booser couldn't preserve the 1-0 lead in the eighth, as singles by Francisco Alvarez and Brandon Nimmo put runners on the corners with one out, and Juan Soto's fly to left was deep enough to tie the game.
The White Sox were limited to Andrew Benintendi's sac fly in the fourth inning, although not for a lack of chances. He came to the plate after Mike Tauchman walked and Miguel Vargas doubled him to third and cashed in the one run, and that represented the peak of the White Sox's output. Vargas bypassed a chance to tag up to third on Benintendi's deep flyout to left, then ran into an out when he tried advancing on Robert's grounder to the left side. Robert eventually backfilled his position at second base when Clay Holmes disengaged three times for a balk, but Joshua Palacios tapped back to the mound, and the White Sox were held scoreless the rest of the way.
The White Sox went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10, despite promising rallies inning after inning:
- Fifth inning: Edgar Quero leads off with a double, but a groundout, strikeout and groundout leave him there.
- Sixth inning: The White Sox load the bases after two outs, but Quero fouls off a sinker that would've been ball four before grounding out.
- Seventh inning: Josh Rojas singled with one out and steals second, but Pete Alonso makes a sliding stop on Chase Meidroth's grounder, and Mike Tauchman strikes out.
- Eighth inning: Benintendi walks with one out and pinch-hitting Austin Slater walks with two, but Quero strikes out on three pitches.
The White Sox ended up drawing seven walks over nine innings, but the four hits limited them.
Adrian Houser did what he could to prevail in 1-0 games in both of his starts for the White Sox with six-plus scoreless innings. He managed to top the performance in his debut, allowing a one-out double in the first and a two-out single in the sixth, retiring 16 consecutive hitters in between. The stuff ticked up even more, and this time the changeup took the starring role among his secondary pitches, generating six whiffs, including three strike threes.
Will Venable tried to spare his bullpen extra outs by having Houser start the seventh, but Houser walked Soto on five pitches, then fell behind Alonso 3-0 before giving up a lined single to right field. Venable called for Brandon Eisert, who put forth one of the best relief appearances of the season.
First, Eisert nearly induced a double-play ball from Starling Marte, but the 6-4-3 attempt wasn't quite in time. Brett Baty then came to the plate with runners on the corners, and while Eisert fell behind 2-0 with two sliders, Baty couldn't lay off a third slider that dipped just below the zone. Eisert handled the weak bouncer and looked Soto back to third before getting the out at first. With first base open, he pitched around Tyrone Taylor to set up the lefty-lefty battle against Jeff McNeil, and Eisert couldn't have pitched him any better. After missing with one slider low and away, he located the next three perfectly, getting a called strike, foul ball, and then the backwards K.
Alas, there were still two more innings to cover.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox are now a league-worst 3-13 in one-run games.
*The Mets were just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 themselves, so both teams could've won this one by more.
*Meidroth's hitting streak ended at 11 games due to a pair of infield robberies (Lindor made a slick pick on a hot one-hopper in the third inning), but he drew two walks at the top of the order.
