The pitching was shaky throughout the game, and the South Siders left nine on base
The White Sox (17-38) lost their third game in a row Tuesday, falling to the Mets (34-21), 6-4, and officially losing the series. The South Siders are now 3-7 in their last 10, and face yet another series sweep on Wednesday.
Chicago’s offense started out strong, with Mike Tauchman walking to get on base. Miguel Vargas capitalized on the situation by blasting a two-run shot to left to provide a nice two-run cushion for Jonathan Cannon heading into the bottom of the first. Vargas has been absolutely on fire lately, and the corner he has turned has been thrilling to witness.
Although Cannon struck out Francisco Lindor to begin his outing, things quickly went off the rails. Pete Alonso and Jared Young each sent a two-run shot to tie the game and subsequently take the lead to eliminate the South Side advantage in the blink of an eye.
After the pair of homers, things quickly escalated again, as Cannon gave up back-to-back singles to Mark Vientos and Jeff McNeill (making it five Mets hits in SIX pitches) before hitting Francisco Alvarez to load the bases. The Mets had batted all the way around, but thankfully, Lindor grounded out to end the inning and stop the chaos.
Cannon recovered well in the second and retired New York in order, but they started another rally in the third after a single and a double put runners in scoring position. McNeill extended the lead to three by driving in Brett Baty on a sacrifice fly to left.
Cannon ended up leaving the game with two outs in the bottom of the sixth after walking his first batter of the game, extending the inning to allow Lindor to finally catch up to him. Lindor mashed a double to put runners in scoring position, but Jared Shuster came in and shut down Brandon Nimmo to end the scoring threat. Cannon gave up nine hits in his five-run outing, but only walked one batter while striking out four. Definitely not his best outing, but all things considered, it could have been a lot worse.
Outside of some sporadic hits and walks, Chicago’s offense snoozed until the top of the seventh, unable to really touch Tylor Megill after the first. Megill walked a couple of batters in the sixth before exiting the game, but otherwise was efficient against the South Siders with just four hits against six strikeouts.
Vargas has been a good-luck charm for the Sox, though, and one run scored while he was up to bat on a wild pitch, and then he smoked a double off of the left-field wall to bring the game within one — just narrowly missing his second round-tripper of the game.
Edgar Quero was up with the tying run still on base, but he struck out to end the inning — extremely predictable for this team, and something they’d do again two more times (spoiler alert). Quero has been slumping a bit over the last couple of weeks, and is slashing just .211/.250/.368 over his last seven games (19 ABs). He’s still doing well overall, but it would be great to see him convert in some of these high-leverage situations.
Austin Slater led off the top of the eighth inning to pinch-hit for Palacios and drove a base hit through the left side in an effort to start a rally to tie the game. The Good Guys failed once again, going down in order to end the inning. Lenyn Sosa flew out, and pinch-hitter Luis Robert Jr. and Michael A. Taylor went down swinging to end the frame (one of the spoilers I mentioned earlier).
Shuster ended up manning the mound for 2 1⁄3 innings, sparing the pen with a quick turnaround game tomorrow afternoon. The southpaw was in command for most of his outing, working the seventh perfectly before getting into a jam in the eighth that he couldn’t escape: McNeill kicked off a two-out rally that included three consecutive base hits from him, Alvarez, and Lindor — who recorded the RBI and extended the lead back to two, 6-4. Shuster was at least able to get Nimmo to ground out and end the inning with just the one run crossing the plate.
The White Sox had one final chance in their half of the ninth with the top of the order coming up. Meidroth wasn’t able to get on base this time around, but Tauchman drew a walk to get to Vargas — exactly who you’d want up in this situation. Vargas got a great look and ripped a line drive to third with a .450 xBA, but unfortunately, it was caught for an out. This left the final chance up to Andrew Benintendi … who struck out and promptly ended the game.
Even with Cannon off of his game, the White Sox had their chances. Unfortunately, with those chances the Sox offense left nine runners on base, and every time there was an opportunity to drive in the tying or go-ahead run, they just struck out (see: Quero, Taylor, and Benny). We can try to blame the bullpen and pitching all we want, but the White Sox won’t ever win games if the offense can’t convert in key opportunities.
Chicago will take another big fat series L out of New York, but still have one more to play tomorrow. Due to incoming inclement weather, the night game has been moved up, with first pitch at 12:10 p.m. CT.
Futility Watch
White Sox 2025 Record: 17-38, tied for the second-worst start in White Sox history and tied for the 56th-worst start in baseball history. A 17-38 record projects to 50-112 over a full season. A year ago, the record-breaking White Sox were 15-40.
All-Time White Sox Record (1901-2025, 19,261 games) 9,611-9,650 (.4990). It’s been 99 games since the White Sox had an all-time winning record.
Record Since the New Pope Was Revealed as a White Sox Fan 7-10
- Race to the Worst “Modern” 162-Game Record (2024 White Sox, 41-121)
- Race to the Worst “Modern” Record in a 162-Game Season (1962 Mets, 40-120-1, finished three percentage points worse than the 2024 White Sox)
- Race to the Most White Sox Losses (2024, 121)
- Race to the Worst White Sox Record (2024, 41-121)
Nine games better, in all cases
Race to the Worst Post-1899 Record (1916 A’s, 38-124 adjusted to 162 games) 12 games better