Rangers Lose In Chicago
CHICAGO — Jose Abreu needed no extra motivation. He had been struggling, and the Texas Rangers brought in an extra infielder from the outfield when he came to the plate in the 11th inning with the score tied and the bases loaded with one out.
Abreu delivered. He drove in the winning run and the Chicago White Sox beat the Rangers 4-3 on Saturday.
“When you see that kind of formation, when you see five infielders, that’s something that motivates you, or at least I took it in that way,” Abreu said. “Especially in the moment with my offense, I’m struggling.”
Abreu was 2-for-35 before that at-bat.
The White Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the 11th after a walk, hit batter and another walk issued by Nick Martinez (0-1). With the extra defender in the infield, Jimmy Rollins hit into a fielder’s choice before Abreu singled through the hole at shortstop for his second career walk-off hit.
“I took my eyes just for one second off the ball and ended up missing it,” Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre said. “The shadow was a little tough, but I should have gotten it.”
The Rangers fall to 0-2 in extra innings and have lost two in a row after winning four straight.
“Trying to cover as much ground on the infield as we could, we got the
two ground balls — one right at us and one just to the left where we couldn’t get it,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said.
The White Sox have won four of five. Matt Albers (1-0) got the victory after throwing a scoreless inning.
“This whole season, it’s been a lot of fun,” Chicago third baseman Todd Frazier said. “We’ve got guys who come in here and compete. We have that one goal to win the division. We’ve got pitchers doing their job, hitters we’ve been up and down a little bit, but at the same time a lot of positive these last couple games. We’re battling, trying to finish games, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Rollins singled to start a rally in the ninth. But Abreu hit into a double play, and right fielder Nomar Mazara robbed Frazier of a potential home run at the wall.
“Great catch, playing back, no-doubles situation,” Banister said.
Frazier thought he had a chance at a game-winner.
“One of those things, you hope and pray,” he said. “And, sometimes, he
makes a good play.
“We weren’t down and out. We knew we had to come back.”
Ian Desmond scored the tying run on Elvis Andrus’ sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Dioner Navarro hit a go-ahead single in the eighth for a 3-2 Chicago lead.
Also in the eighth, Frazier homered off Sam Dyson to tie it at 2. The homer was Frazier’s third in five games and fifth of the season.
Andrus’ triple in the seventh gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead.
Desmond hit his second home run for a 1-0 Texas lead in the second. Melky Cabrera tied it with his second homer in the bottom of the inning.
Rodon rebounded from his career-worst outing. He allowed two runs and struck out seven in 6 2/3 innings after he gave up five runs and six hits in one-third of an inning on Monday against the Angels in his shortest career start.
“He had a lot of rest from the last time,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “When you get an early exit, you’re motivated to go out there and throw.”
Colby Lewis allowed a run in six innings for Texas. In his last four starts at U.S. Cellular Field, he has given up two runs in 32 innings.
“It was a great baseball game,” Banister said. “A little bit of everything for everybody. Well pitched by two starters, had some nice relief appearances, solid base running, some timely hitting, two comebacks, great defense in the outfield with what looked to be a robbed home run. Just got a little sideways there.”
