Vargas brings the runs (and rain), but White Sox walked off second night in a row

CLEVELAND – Miguel Vargas’ three-run home run in the fifth inning of a 4-3 loss in 10 innings to the Guardians on Friday night at Progressive Field was such an impressive battle, such a prodigious clout that it brought rain … and a one-hour, 55-minute delay.

Unfortunately, that blast is where the fun ended for Vargas and the White Sox (45-42), who fell one game behind the Guardians (47-42) in the American League Central with their third straight loss.

“It’s not the way we want to come here and start the series,” Vargas said. “Sometimes that’s how baseball works. We’ve been doing that a lot during the year. Being on this side now really sucks, but we are playing really good baseball and that’s all we can ask.”

"That's a tough one,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “You have to find a way to score more runs.”

Venable credited Cleveland for the way the Guardians battled against his team, which has been battling since Day 1 of Spring Training. And Cleveland’s 10th inning illustrated the scrappy way to produce a victory.

Reliever Erik Sabrowski struck out pinch-hitters Randal Grichuk and Junior Perez before retiring Sam Antonacci on a long fly ball to right field to keep the White Sox scoreless. Travis Bazzana went the other way against Sean Newcomb for a single to left to open the bottom half of the 10th, followed by Kahlil Watson’s single up the middle for his first career walk-off hit.

White Sox starter Anthony Kay was knocked out of a solid start after four innings by the bad weather, mentioning postgame how he thought the teams could have played another inning or two before the heavy rain arrived, although the umpires disagreed with their fifth-inning call for the tarp. Jordan Hicks and Chris Murphy made the lead hold up by striking out five of the six outs during the scoreless fifth and sixth innings, but both of Seranthony Domínguez’s walks in the seventh came around to score.

Venable thought Domínguez struck out Brayan Rocchio on the second walk and Statcast supported his supposition. But the White Sox did not use an ABS challenge.

Vargas’ two-out connection against Cleveland starter Gavin Williams was not of the mundane baseball variety. It was a 10-pitch at-bat, with rain falling steadily but lightly and the wind blowing stridently from left to right. He fouled off pitches No. 5 and No. 6 on 100 mph and 100.1 mph four-seam fastballs, respectively, according to Statcast.

Williams went with three straight sweepers on pitches seven through nine, as Vargas worked the count from 0-2 to 3-2. On pitch No. 10, another sweeper, Vargas crushed it a Statcast-projected 374 feet down the left-field line, with the rain delay beginning almost as soon as the ball landed.

“One of the best at-bats of the year. It was incredible,” Venable said. “Vargy has been doing it every single day, he does something special. That was a great example.”

Vargas became the third White Sox player with 20 or more home runs this season, joining Colson Montgomery (21) and Munetaka Murakami (20). It’s the White Sox 87th game, the second-fewest team games to have a trio of 20-homer hitters in franchise history, behind 80 games for Jim Thome, Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye in 2006.

“Just looking for a strike,” Vargas said. “I was trying to drive the runner home. Take good pitches to swing at and I got a good swing on it.”

“He's a good hitter,” said Williams of Vargas. “He's worked plenty of at-bats off me the last two series I've faced them. He's seen about everything I could throw at him, and he got the pitch he was looking for. I left it up a little bit in the zone, and wish I didn't.”

Murakami, who has been out since May 29 with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain, ran the bases pregame Friday with high intensity. Murakami needs to do that again Saturday and then recover before discussion of a Minor League injury rehab is set, but Venable was upbeat about Friday’s work.

“Really positive,” Venable said. “It was a really good day, probably his best day yet. So we’ll build from there and see what we got.”

Some building will be needed Saturday from the White Sox, who are trying to avoid their first four-game losing streak of this season, after dropping to 17-28 on the road. It’s also the day for All-Star announcements, with Vargas reinforcing his case, but this team is about the team above all else.

“We’ve got another one tomorrow,” Kay said. “We’re going to bounce back and go right after them.”

“Not the result we want,” Vargas said. “But hopefully we get back.”