CLEVELAND — Chicago White Sox starter Chris Flexen was called for a balk in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians, moving Tyler Freeman to second base. Brayan Rocchio drove in Freeman with a single.
One inning later, the Sox had a chance at throwing out Josh Naylor when he tried to advance on David Fry’s grounder to short. But Paul DeJong’s throw bounced off Naylor’s back, and the ball bounced toward the Guardians dugout as Naylor scored on the error.
The mistakes kept adding up for the Sox in a 7-6 loss in front of 25,654 at Progressive Field. The Sox fell to 7-17 in one-run games.
“It was one of those games where a lot of little things got away from us,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “We had the balk. We had an 0-2 (count) homer (by Freeman in the sixth). (Flexen) tried to execute a pitch and he didn’t. That’s all. We had, you can call it really good baserunning on Naylor (getting in the line of DeJong’s throw), but it was an error.
“It’s just a bunch of little things today cost us the ballgame.”
The Guardians won in walk-off fashion in the ninth when Andrés Giménez scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Bo Naylor.
Giménez led off with a single, advanced to second on a groundout and reached third on a wild pitch when reliever Michael Kopech’s cleat got stuck and he spiked a pitch to the plate. Luis Robert Jr. did not attempt a throw on the sac fly.
“I didn’t have a chance,” Robert said.
With one out, all of the Sox outfielders were playing at shallow depth. That and Giménez’s speed limited any opportunity for Robert to make a play at the plate, Grifol said.
“Ball was hit 309 feet, (Robert is) playing in, he’s going back,” Grifol said. “Even if he runs back and comes in, there’s no play there. If we’re going to dissect that, we’re making something out of nothing. You’re not going to throw that guy out from there.”
Grifol praised the team for fighting back on a couple of occasions. Robert’s two-run homer in the sixth tied the score at 3.
The Guardians scored three in their half of the sixth — one on the throwing error and two more on Freeman’s homer.
The Sox responded with three in the seventh. Lenyn Sosa had an RBI double and Robert drove in two with a single to tie it at 6.
Robert went 2-for-4 with the home run and four RBIs while batting in the leadoff spot for the first time this season as the Sox gave Tommy Pham a breather for much of the night (he pinch hit in the seventh).
“I tried to do the same whatever spot I’m in the lineup,” Robert said through an interpreter. “First, third or ninth, it doesn’t matter.”
Flexen said the fifth-inning balk was called when it was ruled he had flinched before a pitch.
“I think I did,” he said. “Yeah, no argument there.”
Grifol praised DeJong’s decision-making during the sixth-inning sequence.
“That was a combination of really good baserunning (by Josh Naylor) and the ball just so happened to hit him,” Grifol said. “But I thought (DeJong) made the right decision going there.”
Flexen allowed six runs but just three earned as the Sox (24-63) came up short again.
“Can’t continue to have these types of games just sitting there for us to take, especially this one,” Grifol said. “This would have been a really good one, coming back twice and to be able to steal this one. We’ve got to be able to clean those things up.”
