Chicago White Sox fall to Indians 6-4

So far, Trayce Thompson has been so very good for the Chicago White Sox.

Since coming up from Class AAA Charlotte on Aug. 3, the 24-year-old outfielder has showed the Sox he can hit left-handed pitchers as well as right-handers.

Thompson, who comes from a family of gifted athletes, also showed he can run the bases and play all three outfield spots.

Now, Thompson has to show he can handle failure.

All was going well for Thompson early in Wednesday night's game against Cleveland at U.S. Cellular Field.

Getting his second straight start against a right-handed starter, the Indians' Josh Tomlin, the right-handed hitting Thompson homered in the second inning and made a nice diving catch in right field in the third.

But before Thompson closed the night with an RBI single in the ninth inning, he made a costly fielding error in the eighth.

With the White Sox trailing 4-3, Chris Johnson singled to right and Thompson let the routine roller get past him. The miscue allowed 2 unearned runs to score and that was the difference in the Indians' 6-4 win.

"I just had my mind focused too much on the runner (Lonnie Chisenhall)," Thompson said. "And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but you have to catch the ball first. It happens. It's going to happen again, I'm sure, in my career. It's just terrible timing.

"We had a little momentum on our side with the home runs and stuff. It's just a bad play and I have to move on and have confidence in myself and stay aggressive out there. It's going to happen again, so I just have to move on."

Solo home runs by Thompson early and back-to-back shots by Tyler Saladino and Jose Abreu in the sixth inning pulled the Sox within a run, but then came the costly error.

Like Thompson, manager Robin Ventura didn't put to much emphasis on the misplay.

"It's basic stuff, but it happens in the game and it's an unfortunate time for that to happen, definitely," Ventura said. "Rarely does he do that. He's a good defensive player. It's an inopportune time to do that.

"That ends up biting you, but all the way around it's not going to keep him from playing. He's a good player and, you know, we all make mistakes, but we like the way he's been playing. It's an unfortunate play, but he's going to bounce back from it. He'll be fine."

Jeff Samardzija (9-12) took the loss after pitching 6⅔ innings and allowing 4 runs on 8 hits.

"I had a good plan against them and those 2 solo (home runs) came back to haunt me," Samardzija said. "A couple of pitches came back to haunt me. I thought I made some big pitches and had some nice easy innings and just got a little snake bit there with a couple of those homers that put us down one too many runs."