After last night’s heroics, the White Sox had another major letdown on Sunday, losing 3-1 in St. Louis. Now their lead in the AL Central is down to 0.5 games over Cleveland, and everyone is at a loss for words.
Ahead 1-0 heading into the sixth inning, Sam Antonacci lined a triple down the right-field line to lead it off. Then Kyle Teel worked a walk to set the stage with runners on the corners and White Sox middle of the order coming to bat. Next was Miguel Vargas, who hit a high fly to right field but not deep enough for Antonacci to tag and score.
Next, on a 3-1 count, Munetaka Murakami hit a one-bouncer to St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Alec Burleson, who wasted no time making a throw to home plate. Antonacci got caught in a rundown, eventually fell, and was tagged out. The inning ended when Andrew Benintendi hit a routine grounder to second base, ending the threat. Despite a leadoff triple, the White Sox scored zero runs.
David Sandlin made the spot start and was perfect through the first five innings. In the sixth inning, Nathan Church recorded the Cardinals’ first hit with a soft fly to right field. Then Masyn Winn had a soft liner that got over Colson Montgomery’s reach for another single. After striking out Bryan Torres, Sandlin was one more out away from escaping his first jam of the outing.
Ivan Herrera hit a hard grounder at Colson Montgomery with an exit velocity of 103.6 MPH, but the White Sox shortstop didn’t field it cleanly. The deflection prevented the tying run from scoring, but an error was given to Montgomery, and now the bases were loaded for Burleson. With lefty Chris Murphy warming up, Will Venable went to the bullpen.
With a 2-2 count, Murphy threw a 96.5 MPH fastball in on the hands of Burleson. But the burly Cardinals first baseman muscled another soft line drive down the right-field line. His bases-clearing double put the Cardinals up 3-1 with all the runs unearned due to Montgomery’s error.
As fate would have it, Montgomery had an opportunity to redeem himself in the ninth inning. Facing Cardinals reliever George Soriano, Vargas singled to left field to lead it off. Murakami worked a walk to put the Sox in a position of having the tying run at the plate. Benintendi flew out to center field, and Tristan Peters grounded into a force out at second base to once again put runners on the corners. Chase Meidroth did a good job of not chasing after Soriano’s misses to keep the line moving by taking a walk.
Next was Montgomery, and on a 2-1 pitch, Soriano threw a 97 MPH fastball down the middle. Montgomery fouled the pitch off, missing a good opportunity to drive a pitch. The next pitch was a well-placed slider in the bottom of the zone that Montgomery lifted to center field for a harmless flyout, ending the game.
The White Sox offense went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They scored their only run in the second inning when Meidroth hit a sacrifice fly to center field. It’s maddeningly simple why the White Sox offense is struggling in their last 15 games and why their lead in the AL Central has all but vanished.
What makes the loss more frustrating is how well Sandlin pitched. On 70 pitches, Sandlin finished with a line of 5.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K. The type of outing Venable probably has been begging for, but it wasn’t enough.
Game Notes
- Colson Montgomery went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Since June 1, spanning 82 games played, Montgomery is batting .188/.264/.380 with a 79 wRC+ and 1.0 WAR, according to FanGraphs.
- Munetaka Murakami went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts. In his last 40 games played, Murakami is hitting .150/.282/.347 with a 77 wRC+ and a 39.1% K-rate
- White Sox pitchers did not allow a walk today. Chris Murphy got the blown save, but went 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K.
