The Chicago White Sox were looking for more late-inning magic against the New York Yankees.
The Sox trailed by two in the eighth with a runner on first, one out and the dangerous Eloy Jiménez at the plate.
Jonathan Loaisiga’s 99 mph sinker caught the bottom of the zone, according to plate umpire Mike Estabrook, who called strike three. Jiménez hopped in the batter’s box in disapproval and had a few more words on his way back to the dugout.
Tony La Russa had a conversation with Estabrook, resulting in an ejection for the Sox manager.
The Yankees got out of the inning with the two-run lead intact and added two insurance runs in the ninth to beat the Sox 5-3 in front of a sellout crowd of 37,696 on Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field. It was the fourth loss for the Sox in their last five games.
The Sox scored twice in the ninth and had runners on the corners with one out, but second baseman César Hernández grounded into a double play to end the game.
“We’re going to give it our best,” La Russa said. “At least four times, we had the leadoff guy on and we couldn’t muster something. It was not our best offensive day, and defensively we made it harder for (Sox starter Lucas Giolito). We got a couple of extra times he threw another 20 to 25 pitches.”
The Sox committed three errors, all by Hernández.
“It wasn’t the best game we’ve played,” La Russa said, “but it’s as hard as we’ve played.”
The Sox lost two of three in the entertaining series that began in Dyersville, Iowa, and at times featured a playoff-type atmosphere.
“We kept battling until the end,” said Giolito, who allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits with eight strikeouts and three walks in four innings.
He exited after 101 pitches.
“It was just tough the way it worked out,” Giolito said. “I’m just thinking back to the homer I gave up, I could have sequenced that (matchup) better. It could have been a much different baseball game.”
The Yankees homered twice. Rougned Odor hit a two-run shot off Giolito during a three-run second, and Luke Voit hit a two-run homer against reliever Matt Foster in the ninth.
Right fielder Andrew Vaughn hit a solo home run in the sixth for the Sox. Vaughn’s homer, his 14th, got the Sox within 3-1.
The Sox had a runner on first with Tim Anderson up in the seventh. He hit into a double play that the Sox elected not to challenge. They also didn’t challenge a close play in the first in which Hernández was called out at first base.
“There’s only one of the two that came close to being banged, and it’s close enough to where what I was told it was like a tie,” La Russa said, adding that the call in that situation is rarely “overturned in your favor.”
“There was one time where it was a tie, looked like it might be a tie, and usually (the video reviewers in) New York does not overturn that,” La Russa said. “We had a heck of a lot more opportunities to make plays, get hits, make pitches than one replay.”
La Russa was ejected an inning later after Jiménez struck out looking with the runner on first.
“I definitely didn’t want Eloy arguing anymore because, as it turns out, he’s two hitters away (from batting again) in the ninth,” La Russa said. “I didn’t think they were strikes to guys of that height. I wasn’t vulgar, but I challenged the calls and you get ejected for that.”
Voit’s two-run homer off Foster made it 5-1.
Sox catcher Zack Collins had an RBI double and Anderson followed with an infield hit that scored another run to cut the deficit to 5-3.
Anderson hit a walk-off two-run homer in the ninth in Thursday’s win in the Field of Dreams game. José Abreu hit a game-tying solo home run in the ninth Saturday in a game the Sox lost in 10 innings.
Wandy Peralta made the big pitch Sunday for the Yankees, getting Hernández to ground into the game-ending double play.
The Sox went 1-5 in a season series against the Yankees that featured three walk-offs (two for the Yankees), an extra-innings game and Sunday’s close finale.
“I feel like we are always in the game even when we are down three or four runs,” Giolito said. “It’s like we can mount a good comeback in one inning. We just fell short here the last couple of days.”
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