On this night, the Chicago White Sox’s struggles were evident in two mishandled popups.
During the first incident, third baseman Miguel Vargas collided with left fielder Andrew Benintendi, allowing three runs to score. Six innings later, another popup landed in almost the same area. Lenyn Sosa, who had taken over for the injured Vargas, and Benintendi, who had been ejected, failed to catch the ball, which fell between three Chicago fielders for a single.
The White Sox ended up losing 9-0 to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night. Chicago has now lost 12 games in a row and has a season total of 109 losses.
“You can’t give anything away. Today just wasn’t our best day,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “We made mistakes on the field and on the bases.”
Chicago was already down 3-0 when they had a runner picked off in the top of the second. Starter Nick Nastrini walked five batters in the bottom of the inning before being pulled with two outs.
He could have escaped the inning, but with the bases loaded and two outs, Eloy Jiménez hit a popup behind third base. Benintendi was about to catch it when Vargas collided with him.
“Just got to communicate. That’s Benintendi’s ball,” Sizemore said. “Sometimes you just don’t hear the guy calling for it.”
Vargas was charged with an error, and all three runners scored to make it 7-0. Vargas had to leave the game before the inning ended due to an abrasion on his right eye.
By the sixth inning, tensions were high. Sizemore was ejected for the first time since taking over, and Benintendi was ejected shortly after.
