Chicago White Sox give up the game-ending run on a wild pitch in 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels – The Denver Post

Chicago White Sox starter Dylan Cease struck out Mickey Moniak swinging on five pitches to begin the sixth inning Monday at Angel Stadium.

Cease then struck out Mike Trout, also swinging and also on five pitches.

Cease wrapped up the inning by striking out Shohei Ohtani swinging in a seven-pitch at-bat.

Cease struck out 10 Los Angeles Angels batters in six-plus innings. But he left with the score tied and runners on first and second after consecutive singles to begin the seventh.

The Sox got out of that jam, with Joe Kelly getting a strikeout and an inning-ending double play.

But unfortunately for the Sox, they couldn’t repeat the feat in the ninth. Instead, they found another tough way to lose, falling 2-1 to the Angels in front of 28,554.

The Sox lost without a ball being put into play in the ninth. Reynaldo López began the inning walking Trout. Aaron Bummer entered and walked Ohtani. Each moved up a base on a double steal.

And with one out, Trout scored the winning run on a wild pitch.

“That is tough but at the same time one run is not going to cut it,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “We have to put points on the board and that’s just the way it is. It’s tough in this league to win 1-0. What happened, happened, that ninth inning gets magnified but we have to push some runs across the board.

“I’m not going to magnify that ninth inning. We had opportunities. We have to get back to work tomorrow.”

The starting pitchers held both offenses in check.

Cease allowed one run on five hits with 10 strikeouts and no walks in his six-plus innings.

“(I) felt good,” Cease said. “Not having any walks, I had good command of multiple pitches. Definitely a good night.”

Cease said the key was executing.

“It’s just good to attack and be aggressive and get outs in the zone and strikeouts are great as well,” Cease said. “I just had to work on some mechanical adjustments. I was opening up a little bit. I had to figure out how to train myself to stay closed and it took a little bit, but I feel like I’m in a really good spot.”

Angels starter Reid Detmers allowed one run on two hits with 10 strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.

The one run came in the first on a home run by Luis Robert Jr. It was his 22nd of the season, and third in four at-bats stretching back to the two he hit in Sunday’s 4-1 win against the Boston Red Sox.

Robert had two of the team’s three hits Monday.

Cease only made one mistake, surrendering a home run to Ohtani in the fourth. It was Ohtani’s fourth homer against the Sox this season.

“(Cease) had everything going,” Grifol said. “He was strong, he had a good slider, tunneled it well, left one pitch over the plate and Ohtani did what he normally does with those mistakes. Other than that, he was mistake-free the rest of the game.”

Both teams had rallies fizzle out.

The Sox had a chance in the fifth when Andrew Vaughn singled and Jake Burger walked to begin the inning. Clint Frazier, Elvis Andrus and Seby Zavala struck out to end the threat.

“We had opportunities today,” Grifol said.

The Angels had the opportunity in the seventh, but Kelly struck out Taylor Ward and the second baseman Andrus made a nice backhanded play to start a 4-6-3 double play on a grounder by Matt Thaiss to keep the score tied at 1.

It remained that way until the wild ninth.

“Obviously losing is always tough,” Cease said. “But, I’m proud of how we fought. It was a close game and sometimes that’s just the way they end.”

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