CHICAGO – The White Sox were on the verge of their first series sweep of the season.
But a team still learning how to win took another lesson in Sunday’s 5-4 loss to the Texas Rangers at Rate Field. Right-hander Jordan Leasure entered in a save opportunity as the White Sox held a one-run lead over the Rangers in the top of the ninth Sunday at Rate Field. Texas wouldn’t go away easily, though, quickly putting runners on second and third base with a hit batsman and a Jake Burger double.
Leasure struck out Alejandro Osuna for the first out, but he still had work to do. Kyle Higashioka hit a sharp ground ball to third base, where Miguel Vargas made a difficult back-handed snag. Vargas wanted to throw home initially, but he bobbled the ball on the transition and opted to throw to first.
The play began with the infield in, though, and first baseman Lenyn Sosa never made it back to the bag. He caught Vargas’ throw while standing a step away from first base, and couldn’t step to the base in time to record an out. The run scored to tie the game.
“I should make that play,” Vargas said. “We have to be better in the last couple of innings to close the game. It’s very important. We didn’t and now we don’t get the win.”
“I never had a good grip on the ball. So when I was trying to throw, I didn’t have a good grip so I don’t want to throw bad. That’s why I went to first to make sure we got an out. But we don’t get any.”
Sunday marked Sosa’s ninth game of the season and 11th of his MLB career as a first baseman. Vargas played first base on Friday and Saturday, a position at which he has 20 major league appearances. White Sox general manager Chris Getz said Friday that Sosa and Vargas will handle first base after the team optioned first basemen Andrew Vaughn and Tim Elko to Triple-A Charlotte.
White Sox manager Will Venable shared what he saw on the game-tying play.
“[Sosa] just kind of lost his place out there. He’s got to get to the bag,” Venable said. We’ve got to record an out there. Obviously Vargas didn’t get a clean handle on the ball to go home. At that point, Lenyn’s got to get on first base. We’ve got to convert an out there.”
Venable agreed with Vargas’ decision to throw to first after the bobble.
“I think at that point, it was let’s just get an out and move on,” Venable said. “It really gets quick in there with the infield in on the contact play. So I thought it was the right play. Just got to get to first base and make an out.”
Just three pitches after Sosa’s fielding error, Adolis Garcia drove a slider off the left field wall for a double, which gave the Rangers a 5-3 lead. Despite giving away the lead, the White Sox had some fight left in them.
Rookie catcher Edgar Quero led off the bottom of the ninth with a double, and Michael A. Taylor drove him in with a double of his own to make it a 5-4 deficit. Taylor represented the tying run on second base, but Rangers pitcher Robert Garcia used a clever inside move to catch Taylor too far off the base, create a run down and tag him out for the second out.
“I had a green light, and I was sitting on one look right there, and I got it,” Taylor said. “I wasn’t expecting inside move. It’s just a well-timed inside move by them. Looking to be aggressive with one out, trying to get to third and give us an opportunity for a sac fly, passed ball, something like that.”
“Trust Michael in that spot,” Venable said. “That’s a really good sport for him to be aggressive and try to get in position there at third base with less than two outs. Obviously they had the inside move there and it just didn’t work out. … He was trying to steal. That’s part of his game. It’s a good, aggressive baseball play. I think it just didn’t work out.”
For a White Sox offense that ranks 26th in MLB in runs scored, trying to create a scoring opportunity in a situation like Taylor’s is part of the strategy.
“There’s always going to be risk,” Taylor said. “You know, if I make it to third right there, we’re probably not having this conversation. But since I was out, it looks like a terrible play. But that’s the risk in running, and I felt like I went out there with a plan. It didn’t work out.”
The last chance to tie the game came as Vinny Capra stepped to the plate for the fourth at-bat of his White Sox tenure. A fly ball that left Capra’s bat with a 100.3 mph exit velocity brought some White Sox fans out of their seats in hopes of a game-tying home run, but it was caught at the warning track for the game’s final out.
Leasure took the loss with two hits, a hit batsman, three runs and two earned runs allowed in the ninth inning. Starter Davis Martin, who pitched six innings with two earned runs, offered Leasure support after the game based on a similar moment in his career.
“There’s things we can all learn from,” Martin said. “I told Leasure I blew a game in 2022, and Liam Hendriks was the first one to come up to me and say, ‘Hey man, there’s a new game tomorrow. You can learn from it. Do this, do that.’ And it was a great talking point in my career. I go out in a leverage situation in the eighth inning that I’ve never been in before, screw it up, and he’s the first one to be there.”
“There’s time I’m going to have a bad game, and somebody’s going to pick me up. It’s the state of the game. Jordan’s going to be in that spot again, and he’s going to be successful. He’s going to learn from it. He’s got great stuff, he’s a phenomenal athlete, and he’s a phenomenal competitor. I know he’s fighting at the bit for another opportunity.”
Martin agreed the White Sox are still a team learning how to win.
“Major league games are won and lost at certain points of the game,” Martin said. “You can either take it or you can give it away. Just learning how to take those games away from people. You look back yesterday, they gave us a few errors, we take advantage, we score 10 runs. In years past, we maybe not do that, maybe we do. It just seems more consistent now. But there’s still growing pains, there’s still things we’ve got to learn how to do. All in all, this team’s gritty. We’re going to play nine innings as hard as we can and continue to learn how to win.”
