Both the White Sox and Indians had the bases loaded and one out in the 10th inning.
The White Sox faltered. The Indians succeeded. It's hard for a difference to distinguish itself any better.
Granted, the Indians put their rally together with more immediacy. Yan Gomes led off by hitting a hanging Maikel Cleto breaking ball to the left field corner. Michael Taylor gave it his all, but the ball hit the wall at the same time he did, and he hit the ground as the ball bounced back into left field. Leury Garcia ran it down to keep Gomes to a triple instead of a game-winning inside-the-park homer, but the pressure was on.
Cleto intentionally walked Ryan Raburn, and Eric Surkamp intentionally walked Lonnie Chisenhall to load the bases Why Cleto just didn't walk both of them, I have no idea, and it almost cost Robin Ventura when Surkamp fell behind Jason Kipnis 3-1. But Kipnis, susceptible against lefties all season, struck out two pitches later. Surkamp threw 10 pitches out of the zone, and yet he did his job somehow.
With righty Roberto Perez coming to the plate, Ventura went to Ronald Belisario. Terry Francona answered with David Murphy, who kills righties and owns one of the league's best batting averages with runners in scoring position. He supported both claims with a game-winning single to center to end it.
That stung, especially after the Sox blew their own golden opportunity in the top half of the inning.
Adam Eaton led off with a beautiful drag bunt single, then moved to second on Leury Garcia's sac bunt. That took the bat out of Jose Abreu's hands and shifted the game from lefty Marc Rzepczynski to sidewinding righty C.C. Lee, but Avisail Garcia followed the intentional walk with a hard-earned walk of his own to load the bases.
Then came Dayan Viciedo, who took a fastball out of the zone for ball one, followed by a hanging breaking ball. But Viciedo, always loaded for bear, just fouled it back, and with his best opportunity behind him, he ended up popping out. Marcus Semien then grounded out to second, and that set up the Indians' winning rally.
So yes, a terrific night of pitching from the White Sox was wasted. Chris Sale started off wobbly, giving up a run on three singles, and all on 0-2 or 1-2 counts. He bounced back by allowing just two singles and a walk over his next five innings. Robin Ventura pulled him after six innings and 98 pitches,
The bullpen proved up to the task, at least for three innings. Daniel Webb, Javy Guerra and Cleto each pitched 1-2-3 innings to get the game to extras. In fact, Sox pitchers retired 22 of 24 at one point.
Cleveland's pitching was equally stout. T.J. House allowed only the one run over seven innings, and that was on Alexei Ramirez's solo shot in the third inning. House remedied that problem later in the game when his backfoot slider his Ramirez's front foot instead. Ramirez writhed in a prolonged scene of agony, and left the game by slamming his helmet against one wall and kicking another with his good (or previously better?) foot.
Outside of the 10th, the Sox didn't get many opportunities with runners in scoring position. They went 0-for-6, but just four of those came in the first nine innings. Three of them came with two outs, and Semien was thrown out at third trying to take 90 feet on a grounder to short with the other one.
Bullet points:
*Abreu struck out after the Ramirez HBP for one of those missed opportunities, but he went 2-for-4 with a triple (off the right field wall) and the intentional walk. He extended his hitting streak to 14 games and raised his average to .324.
*Speaking of gaudy stats, Sale lowered his ERA to 2.09.
Record: 63-77 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights