The White Sox launched a comeback against the Guardians on Tuesday night after Pedro Grifol was ejected for arguing a questionable strikeout call to Tommy Pham. In the seventh inning, with two outs against them, Luis Robert Jr. singled to center, scoring Nicky Lopez and Lenyn Sosa, which tied the game at 6-6.
However, in the bottom of the ninth inning, things began to unravel for the White Sox. Andrés Giménez started off the inning with a single against Michael Kopech. He moved to second base after Tyler Freeman grounded out to first base. Then Kopech made a mistake while pitching to Bo Naylor, causing a wild pitch that allowed Giménez to advance to third base.
Naylor then hit a sacrifice fly to Luis Robert Jr. in center field, who hesitated to throw to home plate, allowing Giménez to score the walk-off run. After the game, Grifol acknowledged that Robert Jr. had no play to make on the final hit. Chuck Garfien and Ozzie Guillen analyzed the strange ninth inning on the White Sox Postgame Live show.
The White Sox were struggling throughout the game as they trailed 6-0 going into the seventh inning when Luis Robert Jr.’s single scored two runs and tied things up at 6-6.
Despite their comeback efforts, things took a turn for worse when Andrés Giménez singled against Michael Kopech and moved onto second base after Tyler Freeman grounded out.
Kopech then made a mistake while pitching to Bo Naylor by causing a wild pitch that allowed Giménez to advance all the way onto third base.
Naylor then hit a sacrifice fly that went straight over Luis Robert Jr’s head in center field.
Robert Jr., who had been guarding left field during his suspension, hesitated before throwing it home plate which gave Giménez an opportunity to score from third base.
Afterwards, Grifol acknowledged that he made an error calling out Pham on strikes and admitted that he should have kept quiet instead of arguing with umpire Mike Winters.
Chuck Garfien and Ozzie Guillen discussed how close they came from winning on Tuesday night but ultimately lost because of one costly mistake by Luis Robert Jr.