ST. LOUIS -- White Sox right-hander David Sandlin was perfect for 5 1/3 innings in his start Sunday against the Cardinals, the same day he arrived at Busch Stadium from Triple-A Charlotte.
By the end of the sixth inning, St. Louis had scored three runs on its way to handing Chicago a 3-1 loss and a weekend series defeat. The imperfections of that particular inning dropped the White Sox to 76-73 and reduced their American League Central lead to a half-game over Cleveland (76-74), with a three-game series at Progressive Field beginning Monday night.
Toronto (75-75) won Sunday, like the Guardians, meaning the White Sox lead the Blue Jays by 1 1/2 games and are fighting as much for their playoff life as they are for the division title. A 1-5 showing this past week and a 4-10 record over their last 14 games put the White Sox in this position.
“We've got to step it up. We've got to put our head down and keep grinding,” White Sox catcher Kyle Teel said. “We've got a really big series coming up. We've just got to step it up."
“A lot of these guys here are dealing with this for the first time,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “But I think that their mind, their spirit is in the right spot. Just not happening right now.”
Nathan Church became the first Cardinals baserunner with a one-out single to right in the sixth, followed by Masyn Winn’s single to left. Sandlin (2-2) got the two-out grounder from Iván Herrera to end the inning, but shortstop Colson Montgomery couldn’t corral it, and his error loaded the bases.
Montgomery instinctively shaded more up the middle, thinking Herrera would hit it in that area, and he had a good prep step making a move to the ball. Montgomery was screened a bit by Church, and Herrera’s grounder, which had a 103.6 mph exit velocity, per Statcast, hit off his glove.
Left-handed reliever Chris Murphy replaced Sandlin, and left-handed hitter Alec Burleson cleared the bases with a double to right. Burleson leads the Majors with 109 RBIs.
“In times like that in a game, Sandlin is pitching his ass off,” Montgomery said. “It’s just one of those times where you have to make a play for someone, and we were making plays all day for him. It’s one of those times where you just have to make that play.”
“We talked about it on the mound,” Venable said. “Ranging to his left there, got a good beat on it, just the runner crossed in front of him and he lost sight of the ball there for a second, kind of messed up his path to the ball a little bit. A play he wasn’t able to make.”
Sandlin, Chicago's No. 11 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, finished with five strikeouts and no walks on 70 pitches, with no earned runs charged to him.
“Tweaking the fastball usage, kind of protecting it, that way we can use it as a weapon later in counts,” said Sandlin of the changes made in Charlotte. “Really introducing the sweeper to lefties has been the biggest thing. Then working on the changeup, as well, to incorporate. Throwing the whole arsenal at them, getting in the zone, no walks was the biggest thing to me. Just attack the strike zone and good things happen."
“He just threw unbelievable,” said Teel, who had never caught five perfect innings to start a game at the big league level. “He's made adjustments, and he's come back to us and you can see those adjustments playing.”
That sixth inning was tough all around for the White Sox, as Sam Antonacci opened with a triple followed by a Teel walk, but Miguel Vargas, Munetaka Murakami and Andrew Benintendi could not bring home any runs. Burleson threw out Antonacci at the plate on Murakami’s grounder to first.
Montgomery had a chance for in-game redemption in the ninth, with the bases loaded and two outs against George Soriano, but flew out to center field. The White Sox have had 17 plate appearances with the bases loaded over these last 14 games, going 1-for-13 with four walks, per MLB research.
Thirteen games remain on the schedule for the White Sox, with 10 straight against the AL Central, where they hold a 27-15 record. The countdown begins Monday in a first-place battle with Cleveland.
“It’s going to be fun,” Montgomery said. “They are probably pumped for it as well. It was always going to come down to this, and we are going to go in there and we are going to forget about this weekend. It doesn’t matter anymore. We are all pretty excited for it.”