The first series after the trade deadline did not go the way either the Chicago White Sox or Cleveland Guardians would have liked.
The White Sox and Guardians each will look to bounce back from discouraging sweeps Friday night, when Chicago hosts Cleveland in the opener of a pivotal three-game series between the American League Central rivals.
Noah Schultz (3-8, 5.82 ERA) is slated to start for the White Sox against fellow left-hander Parker Messick (8-6, 2.57) in a duel of rookies.
The White Sox enter the weekend with a three-game lead over the Guardians after both teams absorbed the final defeats of their series on Thursday.
The visiting White Sox squandered a spate of leads in a wild 12-11, 13-inning loss to the Boston Red Sox, while the host Guardians were routed by the New York Mets, 13-6.
The White Sox were outscored 18-2 in losing the first two games to the scorching Red Sox before they took leads of 4-0, 5-2 and 7-5 within the first five innings Thursday. Chicago then scored in the 10th, 11th and 12th but allowed Boston to tie the score each time.
Brayan Bello finally threw a scoreless 13th before Caleb Durbin delivered the walk-off RBI single for the Red Sox, who improved to 31-5 since June 25.
“Good battle there,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Some things that we could control there that you wish you had back there, but you’ve got to give the Red Sox credit, too, This is the hardest team to beat right now. We’ve seen it firsthand now.”
The loss was doubly painful for the White Sox, who lost new catcher Joey Bart to a broken left hand when he was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning. Bart was one of four players acquired prior to Monday’s trade deadline by Chicago, which endured three straight 100-loss seasons prior to this year but leads the AL Central with a 59-55 record.
The only good news for the White Sox since the deadline has been the struggles of the Guardians, who missed chances to gain on Chicago while three straight losses to the last-place Mets, who hadn’t swept a road series all season.
Cleveland blew a ninth-inning lead in Wednesday’s 6-5, 10-inning loss before Foster Griffin, one of three players acquired at the deadline, frittered away a 2-0 first-inning lead Thursday and was charged with five runs over four innings.
The three losses to the Mets dropped the Guardians to 57-59, the lowest under .500 they’ve been all season. Cleveland is tied for second in the division with the Minnesota Twins and a half-game behind the Texas Rangers, who occupy the last AL wild-card spot.
“Obviously, we wish we were in a different position record-wise going into the weekend, but we get three games with the people we’re chasing,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “I think that’s the way we’re looking at it.”
Schultz took the hard-luck defeat in his most recent start last Saturday, when he gave up one run on three hits and no walks over five innings in a 1-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. Messick didn’t factor into the decision Saturday after allowing two runs (one earned) over 4 1/3 innings in the Guardians’ 12-8 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Schultz has yet to face the Guardians in his career. Messick has made three starts against the White Sox and is 1-1 with a 1.93 ERA.
Messick most recently faced the White Sox on July 4, giving up one run on five hits and three walks. He did not figure into the decision of the 3-1 Chicago win.
–Field Level Media
