Rangers 5, White Sox 4 (11 innings): Late rallies fall short

The South Siders rallied from one-run deficits in the eighth and ninth innings, but Texas prevailed in the 11th

The White Sox (23-48) dropped their fourth consecutive game in a back-and-forth battle against the Rangers (35-36) in Arlington.

Rookie Mike Vasil, 25, got the start for the South Siders, and he pitched his way into and out of trouble in the first three innings. Vasil walked Josh Smith to open the bottom of the first, and Wyatt Langford followed with a single, so the Rangers had two on with no outs. However, Vasil got Corey Seager to hit a soft grounder that resulted in a 1-6-3 double play. That brought up Marcus Semien, who hit a slow grounder to third, and Miguel Vargas’ throw barely beat him for the third out. Initially, the Rangers appeared to have a 1-0 lead, as Semien was ruled safe, but upon further review, he was correctly called out.

In the second, after a Josh Jung walk and an Adolis García double, the Rangers had runners on second and third with one out. However, Vasil executed his pitches when he needed to, as he got Jonah Heim and Sam Haggerty swinging. Heim and Haggerty were both retired on a well-located, 96 mph fastball at the top of the zone or perhaps an inch above it.

The third inning was also an adventure for Vasil and the White Sox. After hitting Langford and walking Seager, the Rangers had two on with one out. Semien followed with a liner that Chase Meidroth caught, and it was initially ruled that he doubled Langford off second. However, once again, a call was overturned, Langford was safe, and the inning continued. Old friend Jake Burger walked to load the bases, but Vasil froze Jung on a sinker to strand the bases loaded.

The White Sox faced dominant veteran Jacob deGrom, 36, who made things look easy in the early going. Through three innings, deGrom had only thrown 39 pitches, and White Sox hitters were 1-for-10 with five strikeouts against him. During that time, only Edgar Quero reached base safely against him, when he singled in the third.

The White Sox offense finally put up some resistance in the fourth, when Meidroth led off with a single. Andrew Benintendi flew out, but Vargas sliced a sharp liner for a double to put two in scoring position. Kyle Teel drove in the first run of the game with a deep sacrifice fly for the first RBI of his young MLB career. The White Sox added an insurance run when Luis Robert Jr. hit a timely single to make the score 2-0.

Vasil retired all three batters he faced in the fourth to conclude his outing. Vasil finished with four innings, no runs, two hits, four walks, and four strikeouts. Reliever Brandon Eisert took over to begin the fifth, and he allowed a leadoff double to Smith. After getting Langford to fly out, Seager lined a double to cut the deficit in half. At that point, Steven Wilson took over, and he preserved the slim lead.

With the score still 2-1 entering the bottom of the seventh, rookie flamethrower Grant Taylor took over on the mound. Although Taylor generated seven swings and misses in only one inning, he had his first unsuccessful MLB appearance. Langford singled to open the inning, Seager walked, and Semien tied the game with a double. The Rangers were threatening to take the lead, as they had runners on second and third with no outs. Taylor struck out the next two batters he faced, and he had an 0-2 count to García. Taylor was extremely close to minimizing the damage, but a costly wild pitch on an 0-2 curveball allowed Seager to score the go-ahead run. Taylor proceeded to strike García out, but the damage was done.

The White Sox went back to work in the top of the eighth. Quero picked up his second hit of the day with a single to open the frame. A soft ground out by Austin Slater allowed pinch-runner Brooks Baldwin to advance to second. With Baldwin at second with one out, Fremd Viking Mike Tauchman hit a sharp grounder into right field to tie the game at three.

In the bottom of the eighth, Jordan Leasure struck out the first two batters he faced, but Smith extended the inning with a double. That brought Langford to the plate, and a grounder to Meidroth would have normally ended the inning. However, Meidroth’s throw to first was too high for Ryan Noda to handle, the ball got away, and Smith scored. Meidroth was charged with an error, and the score was 4-3.

The South Siders needed one to tie in the top of the ninth against reliever Luke Jackson. Vargas lined out, Teel singled, and Robert was struck out looking at a painted fastball that barely clipped the outside edge. With their backs against the wall, Michael A. Taylor entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Noda, who was 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts. Taylor came through in the clutch, crushing an RBI double off the bottom of the wall in left-center.

Props to Taylor for jumping on this fastball to open the at-bat. Taylor was ready to swing the bat as soon as he entered the game, and his approach paid off in a big way.

Reliever Tyler Alexander preserved the tie in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extras. After strikeouts by Tauchman and Meidroth, Alexander had to swing the bat, marking his third MLB plate appearance. It is extremely rare for a pitcher to bat nowadays (minus Shohei Ohtani, for obvious reasons), but that is what happened here. (Catcher Edgar Quero was replaced by Baldwin, so Teel, the DH, had to take over at catcher. As a result, the White Sox lost their DH.)

Unlike the two players before him, Alexander put the ball in play (with a 93.6 mph exit velocity), but he grounded out to end the inning.

On the mound, Alexander pitched around the free base runner in the 10th. Heim, the first batter of the inning, grounded out to second, which allowed García, the free runner, to advance to third. With the potential winning run on third, Alexander struck out Smith and Seager to send the game into the 11th.

The White Sox went down quietly in the top of the 11th. Robert was the only hitter (excluding the free runner) to reach base safely, and even that was on an intentional walk. Alexander remained on the mound for the White Sox, but this time, he failed to strand the free runner. After a valiant effort by Alexander, García collected his third hit of the day. García crushed a sharp liner over Robert’s head to walk it off.

The series finale is scheduled to happen on Sunday at 1:35 pm Central. Starter Aaron Civale (4.91 ERA, 5.53 FIP, 22 innings, 0.0 fWAR with Milwaukee) is set to make his White Sox debut. CHSN will televise the game, and WMVP 1000 AM will have the radio coverage.

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