One could say the White Sox should've won this game, but if you stacked each team's missed opportunities against the other, the Mets would've ran away with this one.
The Mets were frustrating early, while the White Sox shot themselves in the foot late. The order of things made it feel like this was the White Sox' game to win, but instead, it was Jeff McNeil who lofted a two-run homer just over the right-field wall in the 11th inning, and Michael Conforto who left the yard more aggressively against Josh Osich afterward.
The White Sox went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, but neither of those hits scored the two runs. When Noah Syndergaard wasn't confounding the White Sox, Rick Renteria took over. The White Sox dropped to 4-14 in the second half as a result.
The White Sox trailed 2-1 entering the eighth against Syndergaard, who largely cruised outside of a rocky sixth inning. Even then, it was a Todd Frazier error on a Jose Abreu chopper that allowed an unearned run to score when Syndergaard appeared to have escaped runners on the corners with one out.
Yolmer Sánchez, the only White Sox to have consistently good at-bats against Syndergaard, led off with a single. Adam Engel tried bunting him over, but a foul on the first attempt started a six-pitch sequence that ended in a single through the left side on which Sánchez took third, with Engel advancing on the throw.
There was much rejoicing:
And then Renteria tried squeezing with Leury García, who struck out. And when Mickey Callaway pulled Syndergaard for lefty Justin Wilson to face Jon Jay, Renteria tried squeezing with Jay, who floated a pop-up that fell between first and the mound, but was too precarious for Sánchez to break for home aggressively.
That loaded the bases for Abreu, who got pushed around by Seth Lugo fastballs until he grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The White Sox ended up scoring the second run in the ninth, but only because Edwin Diaz had no idea where most of his pitches were going. He walked Ryan Goins to start the inning, but struck out an Eloy Jiménez on three pitches, including two that were up and in. Diaz thought that was a recipe for repeatable success and went up and in with a full count on James McCann. He was about an inch away from drilling McCann's face, but it glanced off his shoulder and knocked off his helmet instead. McCann hit the first face-down, but bounced up and took his base with vigor. Goins was already on second due to a wild pitch.
Diaz then threw his second wild pitch to put both runners into scoring position, and Tim Anderson was able to get the tying run home with a fly just deep enough to center. Diaz then intnetionally walked Sánchez(!) to pick on Engel, who swung through a high-and-tight full-count fastball to end the last White Sox threat. Robert Gsellman shut them down afterward.
Lost in the late-inning tomfoolery was a maddening outing for Reynaldo López, but one easily forgiveable after three straight above-average outings. On one hand, he managed to limit the Mets to just two hits despite 11 baserunnners over 5⅓ innings. On the other, he didn't take advantage when he got ahead of the count, giving up three hits and a hit by pitch with 0-2 counts. Still, López's start could've been plenty worse, and avoiding "plenty worse" might help him maintain his progress.
Bullet points:
*Goins entered the game as a replacement for Yoan Moncada, who left in the second inning with a tight right hamstring. He's supposedly day to day.
*Alex Colomé pitched a 1-2-3 10th with a strikeout. If that's his last White Sox outing, it was a good one.
*Sánchez reached base all four times -- two singles, two walks.
*Abreu went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, and Jiménez was 0-for-5 with a golden sombrero.
*Anderson was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts but the important sac fly in his first game back.
Record: 46-58 | Box score | Highlights
