CLEVELAND — Chicago White Sox starter Chris Flexen was flagged for a balk in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians, sending Tyler Freeman to second base. Brayan Rocchio drove in Freeman with a single.
An inning later, the Red Sox had a chance to get Josh Naylor out when he tried to advance on David Fry’s grounder to shortstop, but Paul DeJong’s throw bounced off Naylor’s back and into the Guardians’ dugout as Naylor scored on an error.
The errors continued to pile up for the Red Sox, who lost 7-6 in front of 25,654 at Progressive Field. The Red Sox fell to 7-17 in one-run games.
“It was one of those games where we missed a lot of little things,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “We had the balk. We had an 0-2 (count) home run (by Freeman in the sixth). (Flexen) tried to make a pitch and he didn’t make it. That’s it. We had, you could say we ran the bases really well against Naylor (stepping into DeJong’s throw line), but it was a mistake.
“It was just a lot of little things that cost us the game today.”
The Guardians won in the ninth inning when Andrés Giménez scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Bo Naylor.
Gimenez led off the inning with a single, advanced to second on a groundout and reached third on a wild pitch when reliever Michael Kopech’s shoe got stuck and he threw to the plate. Luis Robert Jr. did not attempt to pitch on the sacrifice fly.
“I didn’t have a chance,” Robert said.
With one out, all of the Red Sox outfielders were playing shallow. That and Gimenez’s speed limited any chance for Robert to make a play at the plate, Grifol said.
“The ball was thrown 309 feet, (Robert) is playing, he’s going to come back,” Grifol said. “Even if he runs back and comes in, there’s no play there. If we’re going to analyze that, we’re making something out of nothing. You’re not going to throw that guy out from there.”
Grifol praised the team for fighting back on a couple of occasions. Robert’s two-run homer in the sixth inning tied the score at 3.
The Guardians scored three in their half of the sixth: one on a throwing error and two more on Freeman’s home run.
The Red Sox responded with three in the seventh. Lenyn Sosa hit an RBI double and Robert drove in two runs with a single to tie the score at 6.
Robert went 2-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs while batting leadoff for the first time this season as the Sox gave Tommy Pham a break for much of the night (he pinch-hit in the seventh).
“I tried to do the same thing no matter where I was in the lineup,” Robert said through an interpreter. “First, third or ninth, it doesn’t matter.”
Flexen said the fifth-inning balk was called when it was determined he had backed up before a pitch.
“I think so,” he said. “Yes, there is no discussion about that.”
Grifol praised DeJong’s decision-making during the sixth-inning sequence.
“It was a combination of really good baserunning (by Josh Naylor) and the ball just hitting him,” Grifol said. “But I think (DeJong) made the right decision.”
Flexen allowed six runs, but only three were earned, and the Sox (24-63) fell short again.
“We can’t keep having these types of games waiting for us to take advantage of them, especially this one,” Grifol said. “It would have been a really good game, to come back twice and be able to steal this one. We have to be able to fix those problems.”
