CLEVELAND — Chicago White Sox designated hitter Andrew Benintendi hit a sharp grounder that appeared to be headed to center field for a game-tying single with two outs in the ninth inning Sunday against the Cleveland Guardians.
“I think I yelled because I thought it was through,” Sox infielder Chase Meidroth said of his reaction while watching the play unfold from the dugout.
Guardians second baseman Brayan Rocchio dived and fielded the ball in the outfield grass. He quickly got to his feet and fired to first for the final out as the Sox fell 3-2 in front of 22,320 at Progressive Field.
“It was a great play,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “I thought it might squeak through there. And even when he caught it, I thought we might have a chance to beat it out.”
The Guardians made several strong defensive plays Sunday to sweep the Sox in the three-game series.
“(The final play) really kind of symbolized what we saw today with some balls hit well for us, early especially,” Venable said. “And some really nice defense by these guys.
“And really all three games, really the same where we did a nice job pitching, we’re grinding at the plate and they did a nice job controlling us.”
The Sox scored three runs the entire series, losing 4-0 in Friday’s series opener and 3-1 on Saturday.
“All three, they pitched well,” Meidroth said. “You’ve got to give credit to them as well. There were some balls that we hit hard right at people, but that’s baseball.”
That started with the first batter of the game, when Guardians shortstop Gabriel Arias made a diving catch to rob Mike Tauchman of a hit. With two outs and a runner on second in the second inning, Steven Kwan made a tremendous catch crashing into the wall in left-center on a liner off the bat of Sox left fielder Will Robertson.
Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas made sure no one could get to his fourth-inning liner, hitting it high off the wall for a run-scoring double.
The Guardians responded with a two-out, two-run double from Bo Naylor in the bottom of the fourth.
Those were the only runs Sox starter Yoendrys Gómez allowed in five innings.
“Gomez was great,” Venable said. “A lot of swing and miss. I thought the fastball was really good. We see, again, when he throws strikes he’s really effective. And did a really nice job today.”
Gómez surrendered two hits, struck out four and walked one while throwing 77 pitches.
“I was attacking the hitters on my first pitch,” Gómez said through an interpreter. “I was mixing up my pitches too. That’s always the mentality with who you are facing — you need to attack the strike zone and for this outing the focus was to mix a little bit better with my pitches.”
The Sox pulled even in the fifth with Meidroth’s solo home run.
“Just put a good swing on a good pitch,” he said.
The home run extended Meidroth’s hitting streak to 10 games. He’s hitting .471 (16-for34) during the stretch.
“He seems really aggressive,” Venable said. “His swing decisions is something he takes pride in. It’s one of his best skills. We’ve seen him be aggressive early in the count, which is nice.
“(You’ve) got to find ways to survive in this league and he’s a ballplayer, he’s going to figure it out and that’s what we’re seeing. A young guy that has gone through his journey and kind of figured it out as he continues to accumulate big-league at-bats.”
The score remained tied until the seventh when Naylor hit a solo home run against reliever Brandon Eisert.
The Sox had their chances in the ninth. Lenyn Sosa singled with one out against reliever Cade Smith. And with two outs, Sosa moved to third when Vargas blooped a single to right. The rally — and game — ended with Rocchio’s sensational play on Benintendi’s grounder.
“(Rocchio) made a good play,” Meidroth said. “He’s a really good player and made a good play. But that was a good at-bat there, moving the ball forward up the middle and giving ourselves a really good chance to win.”
Instead, the Sox went 0-for-Cleveland in 2025 — just the second time in franchise history they didn’t win there in a season. They went 0-6 this year, doing likewise in 1976.
“The guys continued to fight and grind,” Venable said of the ninth-inning at-bats. “It felt like really all series we had good at-bats where we were making good decisions. Just didn’t really have anything to show for it.”
