The Chicago White Sox appeared headed for a dramatic victory when Andrew Vaughn launched a long fly ball to left field.
But it took one of the top catches of the year to extend a season of misery.
Travis Jankowski jumped, and with his arm well extended above the left-field wall, robbed Vaughn of a three-run home run for the second out of the ninth inning.
“It’s probably one of the best catches you’ll see in a long time,” Vaughn said. “Got to hand it to him. That at-bat, that situation, put a good swing. You know, came that close.”
The Rangers got out of the jam when Leody Taveras tracked down Lenyn Sosa’s fly ball to shallow center with the bases loaded to hold on and beat the Sox 4-3 in the second of two games Wednesday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Sox dropped both contests, losing 3-1 in the completion of Tuesday’s suspended game during the afternoon followed by the heartbreaker in the evening, and now have 103 defeats, the second-most losses in a single season in franchise history.
“That one hurts, that stings,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said after the second game. “I thought we had it. Still even when (Jankowski) went up there, I didn’t think he caught it. Great play. Unfortunate for us.
“Guys fought hard. We’re being tested right now. That’s a tough game to lose.”
TRAVIS JANKOWSKI TAKES AWAY A WALK-OFF HOME RUN
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At 31-103, the Sox are 72 games under .500 for the first time in franchise history.
Their loss total surpasses the 1932 Sox, who had 102. They are three defeats shy from tying the franchise record of 106, held by the 1970 club.
They have lost six straight and 10 of 11. With the two losses Wednesday, the Sox clinched their 16th consecutive series loss.
In the day’s first game, Chris Flexen pitched well after taking over for Garrett Crochet — who threw four pitches before the game went into a weather delay Tuesday night and was then suspended — allowing three runs on nine hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Flexen was hard on himself after the Rangers scored twice in the seventh.
“Excited Grady let me go out there and have a shot at the bottom (of the lineup) there, it’s on me for f−−−−−− it up,” Flexen said. “A couple of positives today though. I thought we played a tough game, thought (catcher) Korey (Lee) and I had a really good mix today, mixed and battled.
“Just didn’t execute at the end. That was on me.”
Photos: Chicago White Sox lose two games to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday
The score was tied at 1 entering the seventh.
Flexen allowed back-to-back singles to the seventh and eighth hitters in the Rangers lineup — Wyatt Langford and Jonah Heim — to begin the inning. Ezequiel Durán lined out to right fielder Dominic Fletcher, with Langford advancing to third on the play.
Marcus Semien followed with an RBI double, giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead. Fraser Ellard replaced Flexen and surrendered an RBI single to Corey Seager for the game’s final run.
The Sox jumped out to a lead in the second game, scoring twice in the first inning on a double by Andrew Benintendi.
But the Rangers took advantage of a pair of Sox mistakes in the fourth.
Miscommunication between second baseman Lenyn Sosa and shortstop Nicky Lopez led to Nathaniel Lowe’s single skipping back up the middle to begin the inning. Josh Jung followed with a grounder to Sosa, who missed an attempt to tag Lowe and then dropped the ball, giving the Rangers runners on first and second.
Langford made the Sox pay for the miscues with a three-run home run against reliever Sammy Peralta.
“I tried to rush it and unfortunately I think that was the play that kind of defined the game for us,” Sosa said of the bobble through an interpreter.
Sosa drove in a run with a single in the fifth to tie it at 3-3.
He batted with two on and two outs in the seventh and popped the ball up near home plate. Catcher Carson Kelly briefly bumped into Sosa while attempting to make a play and did not make the catch.
But because of the collision, Sosa was called out for interference.
“When I hit the ball, I thought I was in foul territory,” Sosa said. “I didn’t see when the ball came to fair ground.”
The ball continued to find Sosa just prior to the top of the eighth when he looked down while standing near second base, looked up too late and got hit in the face by the routine warmup throw from catcher Chuckie Robinson.
“I didn’t see when he threw the ball. But I’m OK,” Sosa said in English.
Seager gave the Rangers the lead with an RBI single on a bloop hit to center in the ninth.
The Sox got singles by Lopez and Benintendi in the ninth, bringing up Vaughn. Jankowski then made the jaw-dropping catch, briefly hanging on to the wall with his right arm while extending his glove beyond the fence to reel in the ball.
“It was high. You know, the hang time was perfect,” Jankowski said. “If it was a foot further, probably out of my reach. So that to me, it’s like everything aligns.”
Instead of celebrating at the plate, two batters later the Sox found themselves on the tough end of another defeat. After Wednesday, the Sox need to go 12-16 in their final 28 games to avoid tying the 1962 New York Mets (40-120) for the modern-day record of most losses in a season.
“When you look at those games, like this where the balls that we’re hitting are right at guys and they’re hard, and the ones that they’re getting that are just little bleeders are finding holes that aren’t hit hard and homers being robbed and tough breaks just not going our way,” Sizemore said.
“I feel like we’re all being tested and trying to overcome all this. We keep fighting and that’s all I can ask for these guys is just fight and keep putting that effort out every night and keep competing.”
