The White Sox fell to 2-11 against the Guardians in the season series and 13-32 in one-run games after a weekend sweep at Progressive Field, and this game neatly displayed how both facts came to be.
The White Sox twice ended up on the wrong end of plays that were decided by inches, including the one that put the Guardians ahead in the seventh, and the one that prevented the White Sox from tying it with two outs in the ninth. After losing all three games in Cleveland, the White Sox now have to go .500 the rest of the way in order to avoid a third consecutive 100-loss season.
Bo Naylor remembered his surname, as he was responsible for all three Guardians runs, and each of his two hits gave Cleveland the lead. He hit a two-run double with two outs in the fourth to put the Guardians ahead 2-1, and then broke a tie with a solo shot off Brandon Eisert that dropped just outside the reach of Mike Tauchman's leap in right for the decisive run.
It almost wasn't, as the White Sox nearly solved Cade Smith in the ninth. Lenyn Sosa bounced a single through the right side with one out, and after Colson Montgomery struck out, Miguel Vargas hit a high fly to right field. He resigned himself to the final out with his body language, but Jhonkensy Noel couldn't close on a fly that the wind pushed away from him. He recovered to make a throw home that forced Sosa to retreat to third after an aggressive turn, so Andrew Benintendi came to the plate with runners on the corners.
When he got a first-pitch fastball, he didn't wait for a second. He hit it firmly to the right side of second base, but not firmly enough, for Brayan Rocchio smothered a topspin hop with a dive, then sprung to his feet quickly enough to make a crossbody throw that beat Benintendi's last stride to the bag for the final out.
That's how a miserable season series came to an end. The White Sox went 0-6 at Progressive Field, scoring a total of six runs, and this series was characterized by losing the strike zone. Slade Cecconi and four Cleveland relievers recorded 11 strikeouts against just one walk, giving them a 32-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio for the weekend.
At least they were able to rediscover the long ball, or the long-enough ball, as it were. Chase Meidroth tied the game at 2 with a solo shot that cleared the yellow stripe marking the top of the left field wall, but not the safety railing just behind it, so he rounded the bases with a slight bit of uncertainty as Steven Kwan returned the ball to the infield just in case, so that kept the Sox from going homerless in four straight games.
It also was the culmination of a strategy of hitting the ball where Kwan couldn't get it. Kwan denied Will Robertson an RBI double with a leaping catch against the wall to end the second, but when Vargas came to the plate with Sosa on first and two outs in the fourth, he put his deep drive halfway up the wall for his 31st double of the season, which put the White Sox ahead 1-0.
Gómez immediately yielded the lead with his only rough inning. He opened the inning by walking Kwan, then gave up a one-out single to José Ramírez before Naylor sliced a double out of Dominic Fletcher's range, driving home both runners.
Otherwise, Gómez was perfect. He opened his afternoon retiring the first nine he faced, then recovered from the tough fourth to retire the Guardians in order with three outs in the air. He needed just 77 pitches to get through five, but the last two outs were hard-hit, which might've inspired Will Venable to call it an afternoon.
Eisert pitched a scoreless sixth by erasing Angel Martínez's one-out double with a crisp pickoff move, but left a sinker on the inner half to Naylor, and that mistake resulted in Eisert's sixth loss of the season.
Bullet points:
*Two of the White Sox's biggest left-handed threats had tough series. Benintendi was 0-for-11 with five strikeouts, while Montgomery finished 0-for-7 with a walk and five strikeouts.
*The Guardians are 67-69 in games that don't involve the White Sox.
