The White Sox had the kind of night that can turn a tight division race into a headache fast.
They got two solo homers from Chase Meidroth, but that was about all the offense could squeeze out in a 7-3 loss to the Cardinals on a rain-delayed night at Busch Stadium. Chicago went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, left 12 on base and never found the one swing that could have flipped the game. The defeat pushed the White Sox into a four-game skid, matching their worst of the season, while the Guardians closed to within a half-game in the AL Central after beating the Twins.
For a stretch, it looked like Miguel Vargas might have delivered the breakthrough. Down four with the bases loaded in the sixth, he got an 0-1 sweeper from Luis Gastelum up above the knees on the outer half and drove it hard to left-center.
Statcast had it at 104.3 mph and 397 feet, a ball that would have left 12 of 30 MLB parks, including Rate Field. Busch Stadium wasn’t one of them.
Nathan Church tracked it down against the wall, and the White Sox were left standing still.
That was the story of the night: close, loud contact that never quite turned into the hit Chicago needed.
The Sox had already stranded three in the fifth, when Edgar Quero was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Tristan Peters pinch-hit for Brenton Doyle before striking out to end the inning. They did it again in the sixth after Randal Grichuk’s ugly bases-loaded strikeout set up Vargas’ flyout. And they came up empty again on another big drive in the seventh, when Church ran down Braden Montgomery’s 402-foot shot to dead center to take away a potential extra-base hit.
Even the eighth inning offered a flicker before it fizzled. Sam Antonacci was grazed by a pitch to start the frame and moved to third on Kyle Teel’s single, putting runners on the corners with nobody out.
Oli Marmol turned to Ryne Stanek with Chase Meidroth up, and Stanek struck him out on a foul-tipped fastball well above the zone. Munetaka Murakami, pinch-hitting for Grichuk, rolled a soft grounder to first that brought home Antonacci.
That cut the deficit on the scoreboard, but it was the kind of run the Cardinals could live with. Vargas then grounded out to end it.
Anthony Kay and the White Sox defense made sure the pressure kept building all night.
Kay allowed a run in three of his four innings and spent most of the game navigating traffic. In the first, Iván Herrera scored from first on Alec Burleson’s double to right after Braden Montgomery’s throw in to Meidroth moved Herrera a couple of steps and the relay home sailed a bit up the line.
In the second, Kay worked around runners on the corners with nobody out, but the Sox still couldn’t escape cleanly: Colson Montgomery threw across to Meidroth for one on a grounder to third, Leo Bernal broke for home, and Meidroth’s throw bounced to Jake Rogers, who couldn’t handle it cleanly. In the third, Jordan Walker might have been in trouble on Joshua Báez’s single, but Doyle’s throw came in on the first-base side of the plate.
The Cardinals kept finding ways to test the White Sox arms and gloves. Báez scored on Randal Grichuk even though the ball reached him as Báez touched third, and that finished off a three-run fifth that decided the game. Venable pulled Kay after four innings and 67 pitches, with the recent third-time-through issues in mind, but Trevor Richards came in and ran into the same kind of trouble, giving up four straight one-out hits and three runs the Sox never recovered from.
Chicago also hurt itself on the bases. Rogers was doubled off first on Luisangel Acuña’s soft lineout in the second, and Doyle got caught between first and second after expecting a block on a pitch in the dirt that Bernal handled cleanly.
There was one quick jolt to open the game: Meidroth took Matthew Liberatore deep on the first pitch, and the White Sox are now 1-6 when their leadoff hitter homers this season. It didn’t lead to much else.
And as if the night needed another wrinkle, the game was delayed an hour and 70 minutes by rain, or the threat of it.
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