The Chicago White Sox were clinging to a one-run lead in the ninth inning Sunday, but the Texas Rangers had runners on second and third with no outs.
Reliever Jordan Leasure struck out Alejandro Osuna. Kyle Higashioka then hit a grounder to third. Miguel Vargas made a slight bobble, leading to no chance for a play at the plate, and then decided to throw to first. Only first baseman Lenyn Sosa wasn’t on the bag when he caught the ball and Higashioka was safe. Sosa was charged with an error.
Adolis García broke the tie with a two-run double and the Rangers held on to defeat the Sox 5-4 in front of 20,908 at Rate Field.
With the late-game collapse, the Sox (17-36) fell short in the bid for their first sweep of the season. They had to settle for taking two of three in the series. Vargas and Austin Slater hit solo home runs in Sunday’s loss.
“I think that every loss presents its challenges,” manager Will Venable said. “These guys do a great job of extracting value out of the mistakes that we make and continuing to learn and continuing to grow. And that’s what we’ll do after this game.
“We’ll flush it and be ready to go (Monday) against the (New York) Mets.”
Here are three takeaways from the series.
1. The lack of execution down the stretch cost the Sox.
The Sox entered the ninth leading 3-2.
Leasure hit Josh Jung on an 0-2 fastball and Jake Burger followed with a double, and the rest of the inning snowballed.
Vargas said of Higashioka’s grounder: “I think that play, infield in, I should make that play. I never have a good grip on the ball. So when I was trying to throw (home), I didn’t have a good grip so I didn’t want to throw bad. That’s why I went to first to make sure we got an out. But we don’t get any.”
Venable said Sosa “kind of lost his place out there.”
“He’s got to get to the bag,” Venable said. “We’ve got to record an out there. Obviously Vargas didn’t get a clean handle on the ball to go home. At that point, Lenyn’s got to get on first base. We’ve got to convert an out there.”
García followed with the two-run double, making it 5-3.
“You look at a situation like the ninth inning, there’s things we can all learn from,” Sox starter Davis Martin said. “I told Leasure, ‘I blew a game in 2022, and Liam Hendriks was the first one to come up to me and say, “Hey man, there’s a new game tomorrow. You can learn from it. Do this, do that.”‘ And it was a great talking point in my career.
“Jordan’s going to be in that spot again, and he’s going to be successful.”
The Sox attempted a comeback in the bottom of the ninth when Michael A. Taylor knocked in Edgar Quero with a one-out double. But Taylor tried to steal third, got picked off and was tagged out during a rundown.
“I had a green light, and I was sitting on one look right there, and I got it,” Taylor said. “I wasn’t expecting (an) inside move. It’s just a well-timed inside move by them. Looking to be aggressive with one out, trying to get to third and give us an opportunity for a sac fly, passed ball, something like that.”
Venable said it was a “really good spot” for Taylor to be aggressive.
“Obviously they had the inside move there and it just didn’t work out,” Venable said.
Osuna tracked down Vinny Capra’s long fly near the left-field wall to end the game.
2. Chase Meidroth kept collecting hits.
Chase Meidroth bounced an 0-1 slider between the Rangers’ third baseman Jung and shortstop Josh Smith for a single in the seventh inning Sunday, extending his career-best hitting streak to 12.
Meidroth had two hits in Friday’s 4-1 victory and one hit along with two walks during Saturday’s 10-5 win.
He has a .396 batting average (19-for-48) during the streak. It is the longest hitting streak by a Sox rookie since Eloy Jiménez hit safely in 13 straight games from Sept. 8-22, 2019.
“You look at Chase, and you can see at every level the swing decisions have been there,” Sox director of hitting Ryan Fuller said before Sunday’s game. “At every level, the contact has been there. And then it’s, OK, this guy’s probably not going to hit 30 home runs, that’s OK. We’re not expecting that of you.
“Be a really good at-bat. Set the table for guys behind you. And then for him, control the zone, make a lot of contact, hit line drives all over the field. That’s our expectation, and that lines up with what he sees for himself as well.”
3. Fuller sees Andrew Vaughn’s time in Charlotte as ‘a quick reset.’
There was news before the series began on Friday when the Sox optioned Andrew Vaughn and Tim Elko to Triple A while reinstating Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman from the injured list.
In Vaughn’s case, Fuller looks at it as an opportunity to build a plan to get the first baseman going in the right direction.
The No. 3 pick in the 2019 draft, Vaughn has a .189 batting average with five home runs and 19 RBIs in 48 games in 2025.
“Like any player, over the course of a season, there are little things you do one day that add up and you kind of get to a point where how do I get back to what I do at my best,” Fuller said. “That’s what we see this as, a quick reset to go down there like any player, get your body in good position, have your bat path work through the zone so you have coverage and then being able to execute your game plan when you go in and swing where you want to swing. Take when you want to take. Looking forward to working with him.”