CLEVELAND — The Chicago White Sox were flirting with disaster all night Thursday.
It struck with one out in the ninth inning when Brayan Rocchio hit a two-run walk-off home run off reliever Grant Taylor to lift the Cleveland Guardians to a 6-5 victory against the Sox in front of 22,556 at Progressive Field.
“I wasn’t landing the curveball earlier,” Taylor said. “I was going to stick to my strength. I have a good fastball, especially to lefties. I threw a pretty good location but he was looking for it and got a good swing off.”
The Sox (45-41) slipped back into a tie with the Guardians (46-42) for first place in the American League Central with the excruciating defeat.
A leadoff walk to Rhys Hoskins set in motion the ninth inning. It was one of nine walks Sox pitchers surrendered.
“That was everything,” manager Will Venable said. “You talk about coming in this series and when you are facing the Guardians, limiting the free passes is No. 1 on the pitching side as far as the way to beat these guys. And obviously tonight with the nine walks, you are not going to overcome that.”
The Sox nearly did in a game that featured sloppy baserunning from both teams over the first couple of innings.
The Sox overcame an early 2-0 deficit, scoring three runs in the fifth.
Tristan Peters began the inning with a double. He scored on a one-out double by Sam Antonacci. Miguel Vargas followed with a double, with Antonacci stopping at third after holding up momentarily at second to tag up if necessary.
Kyle Teel came through with a two-run double, giving the Sox a 3-2 lead.
Guardians starter Slade Cecconi returned for the sixth, but not for long. Braden Montgomery began the inning with an opposite-field double to left field. Chase Meidroth also went the other way, homering to right to extend the Sox lead to 5-2.
The Sox found themselves ahead despite an off night from starter Davis Martin, who allowed two runs on six hits with five walks and no strikeouts in only 3 1/3 innings.
“It was infuriating, to be honest,” Martin said. “Just out of sync, fighting against myself, trying to make adjustments on the fly, adjustments weren’t working. It was just one of those days, just chalk it up to try to try to limit as much damage as you can, try to go as deep as you can and try to keep the team in the game.”
Martin exited with the Sox trailing 2-0, the bases loaded and one out in the fourth.
“Just not sharp,” Venable said of Martin. “We’ve seen him so good. Today he didn’t have his best stuff and didn’t have command and labored through the 3 1/3. He’ll refocus in between starts here and get back on track.”
Chris Murphy stepped in and got Chase DeLauter to pop out to the third baseman Vargas in foul territory. Kyle Manzardo then lined out to Montgomery in right to keep the Sox within striking distance.
And strike the Sox did, with the three in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
The Guardians started chipping away, first with a run in the sixth against reliever Sean Newcomb. Pinch hitter David Fry homered against reliever Brandon Eisert in the seventh, cutting the Sox lead to 5-4.
The Sox were down an arm, with lefty Bryan Hudson unavailable Thursday.
“He pitches (Wednesday at Baltimore), but the two games before that he had gotten hot (warming up in the bullpen),” Venable said. “That eliminated him from availability tonight.”
Taylor worked around a one-out walk for a scoreless eighth inning. He walked Hoskins to begin the ninth, but then got Kahlil Watson to fly out to center.
Rocchio connected on the first pitch, a high fastball, for the game-ending home run that hit the right-field foul pole.
“There were flashes in different at-bats where I threw really well tonight,” Taylor said. “There was a four-pitch walk and another four-pitch walk. I wasn’t quite as sharp. I think it’s just small adjustments as you go. I made adjustments in the outing to get back in the zone, especially the four-pitch walk to (Steven) Kwan (in the eighth) and then got back in the zone.
“I just didn’t make adjustments quick enough.”
The Sox have been on the winning side of seven walk-offs this season, including June 22 against the Guardians at Rate Field. Now, they’ll try to rebound after suffering their third walk-off defeat of the year.
“We want to win every game, especially coming in here to have that one slip away, it’s tough,” Venable said. “But these guys have a short memory. We’ll flush it and be ready to go tomorrow.”
