Shane Smith Strong Again, But White Sox Fall 5-3 To Yankees In Extras

CHICAGO –– The White Sox came a few inches away from a walk-off win as Lenyn Sosa hit a fly ball to right field in the 10th.

But instead, with a runner on third and one out, it drifted just foul. Sosa struck out four pitches later, and Colson Montgomery flew out in the next at-bat to end the scoring threat. 

In the 11th, a blooper from Cody Bellinger off Tyler Alexander found left field grass to break the tie. Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe extended the lead with hits to follow. That made the “game of inches” cliché ring true, as the White Sox fell 5-3 to the New York Yankees Saturday night at Rate Fied.

“It’s a tough one, no doubt about it,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “These guys battled and put themselves in a really good spot to win that ballgame and just came up short. Yeah, this group all year has battled back and we’ll do the same and be ready to go tomorrow.”

The White Sox had allowed 32 runs across their previous three games, a season-high for a three-game stretch. Reversing that trend, they were in position to win Saturday thanks to their pitching.

Starter Shane Smith entered Saturday coming off perhaps his best outing of the season on Monday, shutting out the Kansas City Royals across a career-high seven innings with a career-low one hit. He was sharp again to begin Saturday’s game against MLB’s highest scoring offense, retiring the first seven batters and getting ahead in counts early and often with his fastball.

Against a World Series contender like the Yankees, though, the margin for error is slim. Smith left a changeup over the heart of the plate, and reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge clobbered it 429 feet to center field for a home run that gave New York a 1-0 lead in the fourth.

"You see the lineups, and we've seen plenty of good lineups this year. The only way you can combat them is by trying to go through them," Smith said. "Once you try to dance around or not get hurt, that's when you get hurt the most. So I just wanted to be as aggressive as possible."

Smith allowed just one hit the rest of his outing, but again, it left a mark. Austin Wells connected with a fastball at the top of the zone and drove it 410 feet for a home run. Smith’s night was over one at-bat later, exiting after 6.1 innings with three hits, two earned runs, two walks and seven strikeouts. 

“Shane was outstanding tonight,” Venable said. “He was in the zone. The fastball was the difference tonight. Secondary stuff was fine. But really aggressive with the fastball in the zone. Did a great job tonight.”

With the second-longest performance of the rookie’s career, Smith recorded his sixth quality start and 16th outing with two earned runs or fewer. Against the Yankees top five hitters, Smith allowed just one hit and struck out four. It also lowered the All-Star’s ERA to 3.81 across his first 121.1 innings in the Major Leagues.

Smith began the season in incredible fashion, recording a 2.37 ERA through his first 13 starts. But he hit a rough patch in the middle, allowing 21 runs in the following four starts. Bouncing back from that, he has a 2.43 ERA across 33.1 innings in August and has learned a lot about himself during his rookie season.

"If anybody's going to beat me, it's going to be me," Smith said. "It's kind of how I was in that rough stretch, I was beating myself a little bit with not staying aggressive and not throwing pitches in the zone and not attacking hitters. Definitely a learning curve. I learned a whole bunch of stuff from that, but it's just realizing my stuff is good enough."

Smith didn’t receive much run support, as the White Sox lineup was mostly quiet against New York’s hard-throwing rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler. Mike Tauchman tied the game in the fifth with an RBI single, but that was Chicago’s only run and one of just four hits against Schlittler, who struck out eight in six innings. 

Following Wells’ home run, Chase Meidroth tied it back up at two runs apiece in the seventh with a single up the middle off Yankees reliever Devin Williams. Meidroth gave the White Sox a chance to walk it off in the ninth, but Tauchman grounded out. They got a run back in the 11th, but were unable to complete the rally as they finished 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position.

With their fifth straight loss, the White Sox fell to 48-88 and a season-high 40 games below .500. They’ll look to avoid the four-game sweep on Sunday with left-hander Martín Pérez on the mound against Yankees’ right-hander Luis Gil at 1:10 p.m. CT.