There are two types of White Sox fans: one that believed Paul DeJong's go-ahead homer in the top of the ninth would put the Sox on track to end their seven-game losing streak, and one that believed it would only make their stumble into an eighth consecutive loss.
The second group is independently wealthy off the Holmes Maneuver, and can continue to collect winnings from the losing.
After Michael Kopech stranded Erick Fedde's inherited runner in the seventh and handled a scoreless eighth, John Brebbia blew the save in painstaking fashion, giving up a seeing-eye single through the middle to Jonah Heim on his 22nd pitch of the inning. And after the White Sox once again failed to even move the Zombie Runner from second base in the top of the 10th, Steven Wilson also took the scenic route toward failure.
The Rangers opened the inning with a sac bunt that moved the Manfred Man to third, after which Wilson somehow came back from a 3-0 count to strike out Marcus Semien. Pedro Grifol then called for intentional walks to lefties Corey Seager and Josh Smith to set up a righty-righty matchup against Wyatt Langford. Wilson got ahead of the rookie 1-2 on three sweepers, but a fourth one went in the dirt, and his fifth sweeper happened to be the worst of the bunch. It hung on the inner half of the plate, just above the knees, and Langford smoked it off the base of the left-field wall for the walk-off 109.2 mph, 377-foot single.
The White Sox are still on pace for 43 wins, but now they have to round up to that number.
DeJong's homer should've infuriated Rangers fans, because Kirby Yates hadn't allowed one all season. He came into the game with a 1.02 ERA over 35⅓ innings, and now it's up to 1.24 over 36⅓. Like Wilson against Langford, he also got ahead 1-2, but ended up throwing the worst version of a similar pitch. He was toggling between high fastballs and low splitters, and while he opted for the former on a 2-2 count, it was belt high, and DeJong caught it out front and lofted it out to left for the short-lived lead.
In classic White Sox fashion, it was their first run since the fourth inning, and first action since Luis Robert Jr. led off the fifth with a single, stole second, then stayed there through strikeouts to Andrew Benintendi, Tommy Pham and Andrew Vaughn. That started a string of 13 consecutive batters retired, with the first six by strikeouts.
Erick Fedde lost the razor-thin margin he was provided, as he gave up a solo homer to Leody Taveras that tied the game at 2 in the fifth. Semien hit a solo shot against him in the third, and that was the only damage he suffered over another quality start. He allowed just one other hit and two walks over 6⅓ innings.
The White Sox offense built more opportunities against Michael Lorenzen, but they also had to settle for just a pair of single runs against the starter. Tommy Pham -- hitting third tonight -- launched a solo shot out to left center in the first, and Brooks Baldwin jumped on a first-pitch cutter with two outs and two on in the fourth for his second career hit and first RBI.
That was the White Sox's only hit with runners in scoring position, going 1-for-14 on the whole, and 1-fo-11 in regulation. They tied their season high with 17 strikeouts (June 9 against Boston, another extra-innings loss). Even #WILDPITCHOFFENSE wasn't their friend, as Luis Robert Jr. was cut down at home plate on his attempt to score on a pitch that bounced away from Heim. He made an on-target flip to Lorenzen, who slid in front of home plate and blocked Robert from having a direct path to it.
Bullet points:
*Nicky Lopez was caught stealing for the sixth time in 10th chances. Like a few others, it was on busted hit-and-run, as Baldwin appeared to miss a sign. Unlike any other, Lopez ended up being safe on third, because Seager, potentially distracted by Lopez's feet-first slide eight feet from the bag, whiffed on Heim's perfect throw. Lopez ended up being stranded when Baldwin struck out taking a borderline 3-2 pitch, and Korey Lee grounded out.
*Baldwin stole his first career base after his first career RBI.
*Robert's steal didn't result in a run, but it did result in Bruce Bochy getting ejected, as home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso signaled a foul tip, but that Heim dropped the ball on the transfer, not on the tip.
*Kopech balked due to a caught spike for the third time this month, but he worked around it.
*Andrew Benintendi's average dropped back to .199 after going 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. Gavin Sheets and Robert also struck out three times, but Robert reached in his other two plate appearances.
