The White Sox had a chance to seize control in St. Louis and instead walked away with another gut punch, falling 3-1 to the Cardinals on Sunday. The loss trimmed their AL Central lead to just 0.5 games over Cleveland.
For five innings, David Sandlin looked like exactly the kind of answer the White Sox needed. He was perfect through five, then ran into trouble in the sixth after Nathan Church’s soft fly to right field gave St.
Louis its first hit. Masyn Winn followed with a soft liner that slipped over Colson Montgomery’s reach for another single, and after Sandlin struck out Bryan Torres, he was one out away from escaping again.
The inning turned on Ivan Herrera’s hard grounder to Montgomery, clocked at 103.6 MPH. Montgomery couldn’t handle it cleanly, and though the deflection kept the tying run from scoring, the error loaded the bases. Will Venable then turned to Chris Murphy with left-hander Alec Burleson coming up.
Murphy threw a 96.5 MPH fastball in on Burleson’s hands with the count at 2-2, but the Cardinals first baseman still muscled a soft line drive down the right-field line. The result was a bases-clearing double and a 3-1 St. Louis lead, with all three runs unearned because of Montgomery’s error.
That was enough to bury a White Sox offense that wasted its own early opening. Chicago had taken a 1-0 lead in the second on a sacrifice fly by Chase Meidroth, but the bigger chance came in the sixth.
Sam Antonacci opened the inning with a triple down the right-field line, and Kyle Teel followed with a walk. With runners on the corners and the middle of the order due up, the White Sox had a real shot to add on.
Instead, the inning fizzled. Miguel Vargas lifted a high fly to right that wasn’t deep enough to score Antonacci.
Munetaka Murakami then bounced one to Alec Burleson at first, and Burleson fired home to start a rundown that ended with Antonacci tagged out after he fell. Andrew Benintendi finished the threat with a routine grounder to second.
A leadoff triple, and nothing to show for it.
Chicago never really recovered. The White Sox finished 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and the ninth inning brought one last chance for Montgomery to erase the sixth-inning mistake. Against Cardinals reliever George Soriano, Vargas singled to left, Murakami walked, and after Benintendi flew out and Tristan Peters grounded into a force at second, Chase Meidroth drew another walk to keep the line moving.
That set the stage for Montgomery with the tying run at the plate. On a 2-1 pitch, Soriano fired a 97 MPH fastball down the middle, and Montgomery fouled it off. The next pitch was a slider at the bottom of the zone, and Montgomery lifted it to center for the final out.
Sandlin’s final line told the story of a strong outing that got wasted: 5.2 innings, 2 hits, 3 runs, 0 earned runs, 0 walks and 5 strikeouts on 70 pitches. It was the kind of start Venable had to be hoping for, and it still wasn’t enough.
Colson Montgomery finished 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Since June 1, spanning 82 games played, he is batting .188/.264/.380 with a 79 wRC+ and 1.0 WAR, according to FanGraphs.
Munetaka Murakami also went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts. Over his last 40 games played, he is hitting .150/.282/.347 with a 77 wRC+ and a 39.1% K-rate.
White Sox pitchers did not allow a walk, and Murphy took the blown save while still finishing with 1.1 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs and 4 strikeouts.
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