Rangers Lose To White Sox
ARLINGTON, Texas — Todd Frazier knew it was only a matter of time.
Mired in a 3-for-35 slump coming into Monday night, Frazier put the finishing touches on a grand outing with a grand slam in the 12th inning to give the Chicago White Sox a dramatic 8-4 win over Texas Rangers.
“It felt really good,” Frazier said. “With experience, you understand that it’s going to come around. Just glad it came today and in extra innings.”
Chicago (23-10) won for the seventh time in nine games despite squandering leads in both the eighth and ninth innings at Globe Life Park. The owners of the best record in the American League are 13 games over .500 for the first time since 2012.
Frazier finished with four hits, including two home runs, and a career-high six RBIs. The third baseman began the evening hitting .194, but it mattered little when he came up with the bases loaded and no outs in the 12th.
Frazier deposited the second pitch he saw from Texas reliever Cesar Ramos (0-2) into the left field seats for his 10th homer. Frazier hit a solo shot just inside the left field foul pole off Rangers
starter Colby Lewis in the sixth.
“We ran into a guy who got hot tonight,” said Rangers manager Jeff Banister, who was ejected in the ninth.
Texas (18-15) had its three-game winning streak snapped in the opener of the six-game homestand. The Rangers and White Sox are back at it Tuesday night in the second of their three-game set.
The White Sox, 4-0 against Texas this season, were able to get to Rangers closer Shawn Tolleson in the ninth to take a 4-3 lead.
With one out, Avisail Garcia and Alex Garcia had consecutive singles to put runners at the corners. Austin Jackson followed with a perfectly executed safety squeeze down the first base line that left Rangers catcher Bobby Wilson without a play and scored Garcia easily.
The Rangers came back to tie the game 4-4 and send it to extras. Elvis Andrus walked to lead off, and after being sacrificed to second, he came home on Hanser Alberto’s single to left.
Texas had a golden chance to end it in the 10th with runners at first and third with one out, but White Sox reliever Dan Jennings got Mitch Moreland to ground into a double play.
“Danny was on a tightrope there, gets a ground-ball double play,” Chicago manager Robin Ventura said. “Great job by the defense. After that, he held ’em enough that our lineup comes around.”
Jennings (1-0) earned the win with two scoreless innings, and Zach Putman worked a shutout 12th in a non-save situation.
“We had an opportunity late to put a run across the board,” Banister said. “That’s how razor-thin this game is when you play it.”
White Sox starter Miguel Gonzalez didn’t factor in the decision, but he may have earned himself another start after a strong audition. Gonzalez allowed only one run on three hits over 5 2/3 innings.
Texas got to Gonzalez in sixth, as Rougned Odor smashed his seventh homer to right to lead off the inning. After a single and a walk followed, lefty reliever Zach Duke came on with two on and two outs, and he coaxed a groundout for the third out.
Chicago went back up by two runs in the eighth on Frazier’s two-out single to plate Jose Abreu.
The normally reliable White Sox bullpen cracked in the bottom of the inning.
Odor stroked a triple into the right-center gap to lead off against reliever Nate Jones. Adrian Beltre’s scorching one-out single to right made it 3-2.
With two outs and a runner at second, Sox manager Robin Ventura turned to closer David Robertson. Ian Desmond drove Robertson’s first offering over the head of left fielder Jerry Sands, who replaced Melky Cabrera in the sixth.
Cabrera was ejected for arguing after striking out.
The White Sox struck in the first after Adam Eaton led off the game with a triple. Texas center fielder Delino DeShields had Eaton’s drive in his glove but lost the ball banging into the fence.
Eaton scored on Jimmy Rollins’ slow bouncer that Lewis chased down on the first base side of the mound.
Backed with the lead, Gonzalez cruised early. The 31-year-old right-hander retired 11 straight before issuing back-to-back walks with one out in the fifth. The threat ended there, as Gonzalez struck out Bobby Wilson and DeShields to preserve the 1-0 lead.
Lewis limited Chicago to two runs in seven innings.
