Slew of missed opportunities spoil White Sox chance at series win

SEATTLE -- It isn’t a particularly long flight from Seattle to San Francisco, but it’s long enough for the White Sox to bemoan the missed opportunities that did them in Wednesday afternoon.

Chicago was unable to build off the momentum they gained the previous night in a dramatic ninth-inning comeback victory, falling, 5-4, to drop the series to the Mariners on a sunny day at T-Mobile Park.

“Every loss is tough in its own way,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “In this one, there were some opportunities where we didn't execute, moments that we’ll grow from. But there's some stuff out there, obviously, that we’ve got to clean up.”

The switch flipped from timely and opportunistic on Tuesday to being unable to capitalize on Wednesday.

The first squandered chance came in the second inning when they worked three consecutive walks against Seattle starter Emerson Hancock to load the bases. Tristan Peters struck out and then Drew Romo grounded into a threat-ending 4-6-3 double play.

The White Sox were able to tie the game at 1 in the third when Andrew Benintendi’s bloop single scored Sam Antonacci, and they tied it at 2 in the fifth on a Munetaka Murakami RBI single, but Benintendi lined out to shortstop with runners on the corners and Colson Montgomery flied out to center to get the Mariners out of that jam.

Chicago couldn’t cash in on another big chance to take the lead in the top of the sixth.

Chase Meidroth led off with a single against Seattle reliever Cooper Criswell, and he probably would have scored two batters later when Peters hit a ball down the right-field line. But it got caught under wall padding and the hit was ruled a ground-rule double, so Meidroth was sent back to third base.

Meidroth ended up being tagged out in between third and home when Romo squared for a safety squeeze bunt but didn’t offer at the pitch. Romo followed with a groundout to first for the third out.

“That just wasn’t executed by me,” Meidroth said. “I was reading the angle of the pitch and I was just one step too far out on the baseline.”

After the Mariners struck for three runs in the seventh on homers by Jhonny Pereda and Randy Arozarena to take a 5-2 lead, the White Sox again threatened a big inning in the eighth.

Meidroth and Jarred Kelenic strung together back-to-back one-out singles against Mariners right-hander Eduard Bazardo, and Peters hit into a fielder’s choice when first baseman Josh Naylor dropped shortstop Colt Emerson’s throw for the double play. That allowed Meidroth to score to make it 5-3. Bazardo then walked Romo, but he struck out Edgar Quero to wiggle out of more trouble.

The White Sox didn’t give up, with pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk leading off the ninth with a homer to right off José A. Ferrer, but Ferrer struck out the next three batters to end the game.

White Sox starter Sean Burke kept Chicago in it, going 4 2/3 innings and giving up two runs on four hits while striking out five and walking three, but he threw 83 pitches and gave way to lefty Sean Newcomb in the fifth.

“We're going to fight to [the] last pitch,” Burke said. “And I think you’ve seen that this whole year. Even today, where I don't think we played well overall and definitely could have played better, the effort and the fight were still there.”