If the White Sox want their lone All-Star representative to transcend token status and garner some potentially positive attention during the Midsummer Classic, they're going to have to play better defense behind him.
Shane Smith might've been in for a slog regardless due to spotty control and BABIP woes, but the brand of defense behind him exacerbated his issues. He pitched around one of two Lenyn Sosa mistakes in the first inning, but most of the infield conspired to make a mess of a five-run second inning that put the Cardinals on track to face a position player in the ninth. The White Sox have now lost six-straight.
Smith admittedly dug his own hole when he started that inning by allowing a single to Nolan Arenado, followed by a four-pitch walk to Lars Nootbaar. But then Miguel Vargas fired wildly to first after fielding a Pedro Pagés' line-hugging sacrifice bunt, which allowed Arenado to score and tie the game at 1.
Pitching and defense then played hot potato with culpability. Smith plunked Victor Scott II on the toe to load the bases, then gave up an RBI single to Brendan Donovan that gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. With the bases still loaded and the catcher Pagés on third, Masyn Winn hit a chopper to the right side. Despite a force at the plate and a catcher running, Sosa fielded the ball and didn't seem to give a thought to keeping the run off the board. Instead, he pursued Wynn and applied a tag, but the Cardinals led 3-1. A two-run single by Ivan Herrera made it 5-1, after which a form of defense arrived when Edgar Quero picked him off first after cleanly handling a pitch in the dirt.
"Obviously giving them extra outs, two innings there, made Shane’s job tougher," said Will Venable. "Just got to convert those balls into outs somehow. Shane has had that a couple of times and has had to work through it. Today we weren’t able to stop the bleeding."
Just like his previously ugliest start against the Cubs, Smith recovered to handle the third and fourth without incident, but he stalled out in the fifth. Even though Michael A. Taylor opened the inning by robbing Herrera of a solo shot into the right field corner, Smith gave up a walk and a single to put runners on the corners, and that's when the defense faltered again.
On a 3-2 pitch to Nolan Arenado, Alec Burleson stole second. The pitch was low, so Quero's throw to second didn't matter -- except that it allowed Willson Contreras to break for home and score around Quero's tag with a swim move. He was originally called out, but the call was reversed after an incredibly lengthy challenge.
"He was safe," Quero said. "The throw was a little bit on the first-base side. He got me."
Smith threw some warmup tosses as the consultation with New York dragged on, but once the scoreboard reverted to one out instead of two, Will Venable called for Tyler Alexander to start the bullpen portion of the evening.
"The way we played in Texas, the games really didn't go our way but we played some really good baseball," Smith said. "To come back here and have today definitely takes the wind out of your sails a little bit."
Not that White Sox relief corps had any more success. Venable used three real relievers and Vinny Capra to close it out, and nobody escaped unscored upon.
The White Sox offense ended up having the best night of the three facets, which mostly serves to underscore how miserable everything else was. Matthew Liberatore and two St. Louis relievers limited the Sox to six hits and a pair of single tallies.
"Not at all," said Venable when asked if the team's struggles could compound. "Not with this group. They’ve done a great job every time we have a result that doesn’t go our way and have a tough game, they come back the next day ready to go, ready to battle and are prepared to play. I expect the same thing to happen tomorrow."
The Sox took a quick 1-0 lead on a pleasing two-out sequence from Vargas (who doubled) and Quero (who inside-outed an 0-2 pitch through the right side for an RBI single). They mustered just four other hits over the remaining eight innings, and Sosa scored the other run in the fifth when he led off with a double and advanced the other 180 feet on a pair of productive flyouts, including a Capra sac fly.
Bullet points:
*White Sox hitters failed to draw a walk, while White Sox pitchers issued five walks and plunked two batters.
*The White Sox have allowed two steals of home this season.
