White Sox let one get away in loss to Pirates
The White Sox have been very good at keeping the mistakes to a minimum and beating lesser teams this season.
They were 17-2 against the Pirates, Royals and Tigers heading into Tuesday night's game against Pittsburgh, and the trends were holding true late in the game.
"We were in position to win a ballgame tonight," manager Rick Renteria said. "It just didn't pan out."
Leading 4-2 in the eighth inning and positioned to win their fifth straight despite a slew of mistakes, the Sox couldn't hold on and fell to the Pirates 5-4.
Give rookie second baseman Nick Madrigal credit for shouldering his share of the blame.
"There was little stuff throughout the game, especially on my part," he said.
Madrigal should have been in a celebratory mood after hitting his first 2 major-league doubles, but they were both tarnished by baserunning gaffes.
In the fifth inning, he doubled with one out and was thrown out at home after running through third-base coach Nick Capra's stop sign when Tim Anderson followed with a single.
In the ninth, Madrigal hit another one-out double and was erased at third base when Anderson followed with a groundball to shortstop.
"Overall, I know we can play better baseball but I would say this one kind of hurts on my part because I know I could have done a couple of things different," Madrigal said after upping his batting average to .391. "I know that I'm better than that. I know I'm a smarter baseball player than what I did today. I expect better from myself."
Renteria was not happy the White Sox let one get away, but he wasn't hanging the loss on Madrigal.
"Trust me, this young man is not trying to do that," Renteria said. "He did a great job. He doubled twice. He put himself in a good position and probably got a little excited on the groundball and tried to get over to third. I'm sure that he won't let that happen again.
"Nobody wants to go out there and make a mistake, but they do happen. I think that one of the ways to continue to correct the mental approach on those plays is to own up to what occurred. Rerun it in your brain as to what happened and put yourself in a better position next time you are in that situation."
Dylan Cease started for the Sox and allowed 2 runs on 5 hits over 5 innings while throwing 79 pitches.
"I did pretty well," Cease said. "I'm happy with the fact I didn't walk anybody. It was OK."
Like the rest of the White Sox Cease was a little stunned by the loss, but not despondent.
"That was a tough one," he said. "But at the end of the day, we're not going to hang our heads or anything like that. We'll come back tomorrow."