CHICAGO -- The White Sox quest for .500 and a sixth straight victory both came up a bit short Saturday during a 5-2 loss to the Indians at Guaranteed Rate Field.
One blip at the end of a great week at home isn’t going to bring down this young crew, who are sitting at 28-30 -- good for third place in the AL Central and only one game behind the second-place Indians. But it certainly produced a somewhat somber effect on a developing team expecting more than hoping to win.
“You can see the frustration here today,” said White Sox catcher James McCann, who finished 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. “Today's game could have very easily gone the other way. It very easily could have been a 5-2 victory for us. That's part of the game. We had a good streak and guys are ready to bounce back tomorrow.”
“Things aren't going the way they're supposed to go, sometimes,” said Saturday’s losing pitcher Ivan Nova. “But we always expect to win.”
Nova allowed three earned runs over seven innings and 97 pitches. He threw the ball well, aside from two mistakes. One resulted in Carlos Santana's solo home run with one out in the sixth that gave the Indians a 2-1 lead and, later, Leonys Martin's two-run blast with two outs in the seventh extended Cleveland’s advantage to three.
Martin’s blast came with Jake Bauers on third and two outs after Nova stranded him there with one out on Kevin Plawecki’s short flyout to right.
“Fell behind the guy, kept throwing that changeup,” Nova said. “It was too hard, stayed right in the middle and he put a good swing on it.”
“He threw the ball extremely well,” Chicago manager Rick Renteria said. “He got the pitch up to Martin, who hit it out. Threw the ball great. Gave us a chance.”
But the real story for the South Siders was two missed opportunities.
In the third, the White Sox loaded the bases with nobody out against Cleveland starter Jefry Rodriguez on a Tim Anderson single and stolen base followed by walks to Yolmer Sánchez and Charles Tilson. They scored a run on Leury García's sacrifice fly, but with Yoán Moncada hitting, Sanchez was picked off second by Rodriguez after he moved too far off the base. During the ensuing rundown, Tilson moved too far from first and was also nailed on a throw from Cleveland third baseman José Ramirez to Bauers at first, producing the rare 1-6-5 and then 5-3 double play.
“Sanchy got a little exuberant trying to steal third,” Renteria said. “As we spoke, not a good situation when you have 2, 3 and 4 [in the lineup] up there right now. He got a little antsy and, basically, he just alerted them he was on the move and they countered with obviously an inside move and [Francisco] Lindor already was there.
“Not one of the best plays. Both guys have their own assignment what they have to do in a situation like that. It broke up at that particular moment.”
The other missed chance came in the bottom of the seventh, when McCann drew a leadoff walk and Eloy Jiménez dropped a double to right to set up the White Sox with second and third and nobody out. Yonder Alonso then drove in a run with a sacrifice fly off reliever Tyler Clippard, but after an Anderson lineout to center and a Sanchez walk brought the go-ahead run to the plate, Bauers made a slick over-the-shoulder catch of a Tilson popup in foul territory on the first pitch, ending the frame.
This strong run at home came to an end for the White Sox but they actually view the setback as a chance to start something new on Sunday.
“We are playing better baseball, that's for sure,” Nova said. “We won five in a row. We lost today, but everybody had the same mindset. Let’s start a new run tomorrow.”