After promising start, White Sox fall apart in 5-2 loss to Cleveland
After losing to the Astros 21-5 Thursday, the White Sox traveled to Cleveland and fell to the Guardians 5-2 Friday night.
The numbers might say the lopsided loss to Houston hurt more, but they often lie.
The Sox appeared to shake off the debacle against the Astros, taking an early 2-0 lead over the first-place Guardians at Progressive Field.
After that, they stopped hitting and allowed Cleveland to rally for the win by scoring 4 runs with two outs in the seventh inning.
The third-place White Sox now trail the Guardians by 3½ games in the AL Central, and they're 2½ games behind the second-place Twins.
Things were looking good in the first inning when Jose Abreu put the Sox in front with an RBI single against Cleveland starter Triston McKenzie and Yoan Moncada followed with another run-scoring single.
After that, the White Sox's erratic offense had just 3 more hits and McKenzie wound up with a career-high 14 strikeouts over 7 innings.
"When you don't add on, it can haunt you," manager Tony La Russa told reporters after the Sox lost their third straight.
Cleveland is now 9-5 against the White Sox this season.
"Anybody that has an opportunity to knock us out of first place and those games really, really mean something, especially when we're playing in division late in the season, we want all these games," McKenzie said. "We don't like the White Sox over here. We don't like the Tigers, we don't like the Royals, we don't like the Twins. Anybody in the division."
The Guardians made it a 2-1 game when Jose Ramirez homered off Sox starter Lance Lynn in the sixth inning and they went ahead for good by scoring 3 runs off Reynaldo Lopez and 1 more off Jake Diekman in the seventh.
Lynn pitched 5⅔ innings and allowed 1 run on 5 hits and 1 walk to go with 6 strikeouts.
Before the game, the White Sox officially signed 33-year-old shortstop Elvis Andrus and he went 0-for-4 in his debut.
Andrus was released by Oakland on Wednesday.
"I want to be in this environment," he said. "I want to be competing for the playoffs. Every day counts, meaningful games. I am really happy and pumped up to be here."
To clear a roster spot for Andrus, Lenyn Sosa was optioned to Class AAA Charlotte.
Left fielder Eloy Jimenez had to leave the game in the eighth inning when he twisted his right knee on a swing.
Also in the eighth, Andrew Vaughn was hit by a Trevor Stephan pitch that deflected off his arm and hit him in the mouth. He also had to exit with a bloody lip but should be ready to play Saturday.
Center fielder Luis Robert took batting practice before the game but still felt soreness in his left wrist and wasn't in the starting lineup for the seventh straight game.