The White Sox and Red Sox needed extra innings to decide the second of a four-game series Saturday evening, creating plenty of drama at Fenway Park.
White Sox manager Will Venable turned to Mike Vasil in the bottom of the tenth, and the Red Sox quickly loaded the bases with one out. Trevor Story flew out to begin the inning, followed by an intentional walk to Wilyer Abreu and an unintentional walk to Kristian Campbell. Vasil’s 1-0 changeup to Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas caught too much of the zone, and Casas bludgeoned it off the Green Monster for a walk-off single.
Teammates mobbed Casas at first bases as the Fenway Park crowd celebrated the 4-3 victory. The Red Sox have won the first two games of the series, and the teams meet again Sunday at 1:35 p.m. ET in Boston. With their sixth straight loss, the White Sox drop to 4-16 on the season and 0-8 on the road. It also marked their sixth one-run loss.
The game began as a pitchers duel between Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet and White Sox rookie Shane Smith. Crochet retired the first five batters before White Sox newly called-up prospect Edgar Quero hit a line drive to right field.
But Crochet stuck a cutter on the outside corner for an inning-ending strikeout of Michael A. Taylor, and he held the White Sox quiet for the rest of six innings. Crochet, who was traded from Chicago to Boston in the offseason for White Sox second baseman Chase Meidroth and other prospects, finished with six shutout innings, four hits, two walks and seven strikeouts.
It wasn’t quite as smooth of sailing for Smith, but he still impressed in parts of his fourth major-league start. He hit two batters by pitch in the first inning, but forced Alex Bregman to whiff at a high fastball and induced a lazy fly ball to end the top frame. He put two more runners on in the second with a walk and a hit by pitch, but got another chase on a high fastball for his second strikeout.
Smith got out of the third inning with a sharp slider below the zone, striking out Trevor Story, and he finished four scoreless innings with a pair of fly outs after a Campbell single. But in the fifth, Smith’s slider to Ceddanne Rafaela stayed up just a touch, and the Red Sox center fielder drove a hard-hit double to left.
Smith’s high fastballs induced a few strikeouts earlier, but Jarren Duran swatted one to center field, putting runners on the corners for slugger Rafael Devers. On another high fastball with an 0-1 count, Devers crushed it to the opposite field and over the green monster for a three-run home run, breaking the scoreless tie.
The White Sox rookie righty got two more outs, but his day would be over after that. Smith’s final line read 4.2 innings with four hits, three earned runs, one walk and three strikeouts. Reliever Jared Shuster – who was called up Saturday, when Martín Pérez hit the injured list – along with Cam Booser, Steven Wilson and Jordan Leasure, kept the White Sox in the game with 4.1 combined scoreless innings, two hits, four walks and four strikeouts.
That kept the game within reach by the time the Red Sox pulled Crochet for righty Greg Weissert to begin the seventh. The rally began with a Joshua Palacios walk, followed by a two-out, RBI single by Meidroth, who hit a high and inside fastball up the middle. Luis Robert Jr. tied the game up 3-3 two pitches later, reaching for a low sweeper and driving it 375 feet for his second home run of the season.
The White Sox had two solid chances to score in the ninth and tenth innings, but no one could come through with the clutch hit. Quero started the ninth with a double off of Aroldis Chapman. Palacios tried to move him over to third, but he popped up a bunt for the first out. Brooks Baldwin couldn’t quite catch up to Chapman’s 100 mile-per-hour sinker, striking out on a foul trip, and Meidroth ended the inning with a fly out.
After a Luis Robert Jr. walk in the top of the tenth, the White Sox had runners on first and base, threatening to break the tie. But Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock fanned Lenyn Sosa and Andrew Benintendi on breaking balls below then zone, then got Andrew Vaughn to fly out near the warning track to end the inning.
With their sixth straight loss, the White Sox drop to 4-16 on the season and 0-8 on the road. It also marked their sixth one-run loss.