CLEVELAND — The Chicago White Sox already had scored once in the first inning Saturday against the Cleveland Guardians. They were in position for more, with runners on first and second and just one out.
Mike Tauchman hit a liner to second baseman Brayan Rocchio, who made the catch and quickly threw to second to double off Edgar Quero to end the inning.
“It was my bad,” Quero said. “My fault. My first move, I have to be back.”
The Sox didn’t have many more opportunities with runners in scoring position in the 3-1 loss in front of 28,463 at Progressive Field.
“(We) got off to a great start there in the first inning,” manager Will Venable said. “Obviously, running into a double play there, get doubled off, the play just can’t happen, especially in that situation.
“From there, couldn’t get anything going. I thought we had some good at-bats, but (Guardians starter Parker Messick) did a good job against us.”
The Sox have been one of the more productive offensive teams in the American League since the All-Star break. But they have been limited to just one run in the first two games of the series, both losses. On Friday they had two hits in a 4-0 defeat. On Saturday they outhit the Guardians eight to six, but the big inning just never came.
“(Messick’s) rhythm was pretty fast, he commanded his pitches, used his changeup and the fastball,” Quero said.
Messick allowed one run on seven hits with four strikeouts and one walk in six innings.
The Sox (57-92) had some early success, collecting more hits in Saturday’s first inning than they did all Friday night.
Chase Meidroth began the game with a single, advanced to third on Quero’s one-out single and scored on a Lenyn Sosa single for a 1-0 lead. And then came the double play.
“Ideally in that situation, you get a head-high line drive you want to work back towards the base,” Venable said. “You hear freeze a lot but it really is back towards the base. I thought (Quero) just took a step towards third base and put himself in a tough spot.”
Sox starter Davis Martin worked out of a tough spot in the bottom of the first. After retiring the first two batters, he struck out José Ramírez. But the ball bounced away from Quero on the third strike, and Ramírez reached on the wild pitch.
A single and walk followed to load the bases. Gabriel Arias hit a liner right at the right fielder Tauchman to end the inning.
“(Quero has) thrown out seven, eight, nine, 10 guys for me on the basepaths when I either (allow a) leadoff walk or give up a single early,” Martin said. “He’s bailed me out of plenty of things. I just wanted to get him back.”
Martin said he made “one bad pitch” Saturday, which came in the second inning when Guardians right fielder C.J. Kayfus pulled a low-and-inside fastball over the right-field wall for a two-run home run.
“Happy with how we battled, happy with how we pushed through, especially the first inning, kind of going through that, finding our way through five innings I thought was good,” Martin said. “But yeah, just one bad pitch.”
Martin allowed two runs on five hits with three strikeouts and one walk in five innings.
“He was outstanding,” Venable said. “Really good stuff in that first inning and we weren’t able to get that strikeout there and record the out. Really asked a lot of him the rest of that inning to get through that and did a really good job.
“I thought they just put him in a tough spot, where it felt like it was going to be a longer start for him and just got into a spot where that first inning was too many pitches. He did a nice job of settling back in.”
He threw 29 pitches in the first but recovered to go five innings in an 85-pitch outing. Martin took a lead in an internal competition with Shane Smith for more innings (132 1/3 to 131).
“We love winning, we love beating other people, we love competing against each other,” Martin said. “So just finding any way we can to compete.”
While Martin has a 6-10 record, he has allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his last seven starts.
“He’s worked through a lot of stuff the entire year,” Venable said. “That’s what these guys do, you’ve got to work through those tough situations, and he’s been as good as anybody doing it.”