Mistakes proved costly for the White Sox on Sunday, as they dropped another close game, falling 33 games under .500 for the first time this season.
Sunday marked the final day of a weekend-long celebration honoring the 2005 White Sox, a team that won 99 games before going on an 11-1 run in the postseason en route to a World Series title.
That group was known for winning with grit: capitalizing on mistakes, playing sharp defense, and coming through with good pitching and timely hitting. The current version of the White Sox still has a long way to go. They head into the All-Star break at 32-65 following a 6-5 extra-innings loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
The game was a fitting snapshot of the White Sox’s first half — a team that fights hard but is ultimately undone by costly mistakes, falling short in yet another close loss.
The White Sox offense built a 3-0 lead behind an Austin Slater home run in the fourth, a Michael A. Taylor sacrifice fly, and an RBI single from Slater in the fifth. Meanwhile, starter Aaron Civale was in the midst of his best outing of the season.
Civale cruised through five scoreless innings, allowing just two baserunners—one on a base hit and another on a dropped fly ball by Luis Robert Jr.—while striking out three. It looked like more of the same for Civale to start the sixth, as he got Jonathan Rodriguez to ground out to third. But things quickly unraveled.
Civale gave up a double to Brayan Rocchio, then issued back-to-back walks to load the bases for José Ramírez. Ramírez hit a slow chopper to first that Miguel Vargas fielded cleanly and tossed to Chase Meidroth to start what should’ve been an inning-ending double play.
But Civale never broke toward first base, and no one was there to cover the bag. Meidroth was forced to redirect the throw to third, keeping the inning alive.
The Guardians made the White Sox pay on the very next pitch. Civale left a cutter over the heart of the plate, and Kyle Manzardo crushed it 418 feet to right-center for a three-run homer, putting Cleveland ahead 4-3.
But much like they have all season, the White Sox battled back. In the bottom of the sixth, Andrew Benintendi tied the game at four with a solo shot to right field for his 11th homer of the season.
The seesaw battle continued into the late innings, with the Guardiand pushing across a run against Grant Taylor in the top of the eighth. The White Sox responded in the bottom half of the frame with an RBI double from Luis Robert Jr. That would be the final run the White Sox would score before the All-Star break, as Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase proved to be too much to handle.
Clase tossed two scoreless innings in the ninth and tenth, striking out two along the way. That effort was enough to earn him the win after Steven Kwan drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th.
“One thing to take away is we’re in every game, it seems like,” Benintendi told reporters after logging three hits on the day. “We’re right there. There’s things that we can work on, obviously. I’m sure we’ll think about it over the break and come back ready to play.”
While the record may not reflect it, the White Sox have made strides this season with a promising young core that includes rookies Shane Smith, Edgar Quero, Colson Montgomery, and Chase Meidroth. Having one of the franchise’s greatest teams — and one of the most overlooked champions in MLB history — in town for the weekend gave this group something to aspire to.
The 20th anniversary celebration of the 2005 champs culminated with Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, Freddy Garcia, and Jose Contreras tossing ceremonial first pitches to their children, while fans received bobbleheads honoring the four pitchers who famously threw four straight complete games in the ALCS.
