Both the White Sox and Yankees are in the top-10 in MLB in errors committed, but it still surprised how much miscues drove the action Thursday night, especially for Miguel Vargas.
Hitting a game-tying grand slam only to be injured amid one of three White Sox fielding errors sounds like the origin story of a tragic hero. But Vargas more closely followed the path of film noir protagonist, where his good works and intentions are eventually overwhelmed by the ugliness of the world around him.
"As a group, just got to be better," Will Venable said. "The story really was defense on both sides. You just saw how the inability to turn some of those balls in play into outs led to runs."
Vargas' rising action began in the second inning, when beleaguered Yankee shortstop Anthony Volpe couldn't find the handle on a fairly ordinary Edgar Quero grounder, and starter Will Warren's wayward control (walk, HBP) did the rest of the work of loading the bases. But while Warren outguessed Mike Tauchman with a 2-2 sinker to come an out away from escaping, that only primed Vargas to explode when he got the same pitch on a 2-0 count, launching a majestic blast over the Sox bullpen in left to erase an early 4-0 deficit.
"I was feeling good, having a good moment for a little bit," Vargas said. "But it doesn't matter anymore."
It doesn't matter because three innings after bad infield defense gave the Sox one of their most thrilling moments of the season, it provided one of its most gutting. Aaron Judge followed a leadoff single with a grounder down the third base line, and even after planting his feet, Curtis Mead's throw to first was low and up the line. After a half-beat of assessing how to corral it, Vargas stabbed at the ball just in time for his wrist to be bent back by a collision with an oncoming Judge, and the Sox first baseman rolled around in agony as the ball rattled around and Ben Rice scored from first.
"It's just such a high and a low," said Davis Martin. "He goes out there and hits the grand slam to get us right back in the game. The energy's there, everybody's kind of rockin' and rollin', pitching staff kind of catches a little bit of a stride, and then boom, it just kind of takes the wind out of your sails. To have Luis [Robert Jr.] go down two days prior and Colson [Montgomery] dealing with his stuff, it all kind of adds up."
"I feel it more in the top of my hand, it's a little bit sore," said Vargas, whose left wrist was wrapped, but not in a brace or cast. "In the moment, I was very scared. It wasn't feeling right in the moment. It felt a little better when I got past that moment. Hopefully tomorrow it will still feel better."
It didn't feel like the most significant thing at the time, but the Yankees went up 5-4 on the play, and never trailed again.
Vargas departed, and Judge's trip around the bases only grew more bizarre from there. He only advanced to third on a Cody Bellinger double to right because Tauchman brought it back from over the fence, but couldn't corral it for the out. Judge stayed put on a grounder hit to Lenyn Sosa, leaving Bellinger out to dry caught between second and third, and only eventually scored on a Jazz Chisholm Jr. sacrifice fly.
Brooks Baldwin, shifted to third base after Vargas' departure, whiffed on a Paul Goldschmidt grounder to lead off the eighth and kickstart to the chilling denouement. A Ryan McMahon double off Wikelman González put a pair of runners in scoring position, leading to a Volpe sacrifice fly. Will Venable turned to newly recalled Cam Booser for a left-on-left matchup against Trent Grisham, and watched him fail to wrap up an 0-2 count until a grooved high fastball was detonated out to right for a coup de grace.
Gleaning from the 0-2 hanger he threw to Bellinger for a two-run first inning homer and its subsequent disappearance from his arsenal, Martin wasn't loving his feel for his slider in the earlier, more innocent stretch of the game. As wide as his pitch mix is--since he throws an actual cutter in addition to his slider being regularly tagged as one--it was immediately stretched upon the removal of such a load-bearing offering.
"I couldn't get my slider in the zone, felt like it was only a chase pitch for the most part," Martin said. "So, just wanted stuff that was gonna be in zone and I could get some early contact, just trying to go deeper into the game."
Chisholm had fouled off two-straight kick changes when Martin relented with an outer half heater that the Yankee second baseman lined into his own club's bullpen to lead off the second. Sosa booting a grounder (another error) followed by one of Martin's three walks across 3 2/3 laborious innings put a runner in scoring position for Rice, who stayed on another kick change--the fourth of his at-bat--to line a two-out RBI single to right-center that staked the Yankees to an early 4-0 lead.
That Yankee lead wouldn't last through the end of the second inning, but in a stretch of 17 games in 17 days, seeing Tyler Alexander in the fourth implies a greater long-term cost.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox said Vargas has a left wrist contusion and "will undergo further testing" on Friday.
"Tomorrow we will do the MRI in the morning, and we'll wait for the results," said Vargas.
*For some reasons it's hard to find a game log for team fielding errors, but the two batters the Sox allowed to reach on errors matched a season-high. Judge was credited with a single on the play where Vargas was hurt, and Mead was charged with an error for the runners advancing.
*Steven Wilson pitched the ninth and allowed two hits and a sacrifice fly to Goldschmidt, for those scoring at home.
*Montgomery addressed his left side/oblique discomfort postgame. It still sounds like it's progressing but not quite resolved.
"Everything was clear so it’s been responding pretty well, should be out there soon," Montgomery said. "I want to be out there every single night. But you have these conversations when you feel like it’s taking away from what you can do and produce, so going to have to be smart."
