Walk-Off Walk Gives Guardians 1-0 Win Over White Sox

Pitchers controlled Tuesday's game at Progressive Field between the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Guardians. Until the final frame.

White Sox manager Will Venable called upon Mike Clevinger to pitch the bottom of the ninth in a scoreless tie. A former starter, Clevinger has transitioned to the bullpen this season, and he struggled with control on Tuesday at Progressive Field.

Carlos Santana led off the inning with a hard-hit ground ball, which deflected off a sliding Andrew Vaughn's glove at first base. Second baseman Lenyn Sosa collected the ricochet, spun, and threw it to first, but Clevinger couldn't handle the low throw on the move. It was ruled an infield single.

In the next at-bat, Kyle Manzardo worked an eight-pitch walk, and then Jhonkensy Noel walked on seven pitches. Clevinger couldn't find the zone enough against Nolan Jones, whose walk-off walk gave the Guardians a 1-0 win. That marked the White Sox sixth straight loss, dropping their record to an AL Central-worst 2-8.

The White Sox lineup struggled all day against Guardians starter Ben Lively and relievers Cade Smith, Paul Sewald, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase. Lively tossed fivse scoreless inning with two hits, three walks and four strikeouts.

One of the best scoring chances came in the fourth inning as the White Sox had runners on first and third after singles by Luis Robert Jr. and Nick Maton. But Andrew Vaughn popped out and Matt Thaiss grounded into a double play to end the threat.

The White Sox put two runners on again in the sixth, with walks from Jacob Amaya and Mike Tauchman. But Robert struck out, followed by a Maton flyout and a Vaughn groundout. Robert stole second base in the ninth, though a Maton popout and strikeouts by Vaughn and Thaiss put an end to the rally.

The lineup mustered just two hits, a representation of how the season has gone for a large chunk of the roster. Six players in Tuesday's lineup have an OPS of .500 or below, including Robert ,a former All-Star, at .481. Only one that played Tuesday has an OPS above .700, Maton at .756.

Clevinger's ninth-inning woes and a quiet day at the plate marred an otherwise promising outing from White Sox starter Shane Smith. He made his MLB debut last week against the Twins and pitched five scoreless innings before letting up two earned runs in the sixth.

Smith was even better against the Guardians, retiring the first 12 batters. He got out of the first inning by blowing a fastball past Carlos Santana on the high and outside corner. Smith's changeup was deadly, striking out Manzardo, Lane Thomas and Steven Kwan at the bottom of the zone.

His perfect-game bid was over in the fifth as Smith led off the inning with a walk and a hit by pitch. But he fielded his position well to get Gabriel Arias out, then ended the inning with a lineout by Bo Naylor. Smith's no-hit bid came to a bit of an unlucky end in the sixth as José Ramírez hit a ground ball down the third base line with a 41.3 miler-per-hour exit velocity. Santana followed with a single that left his bat at 102.3 miles per hour.

Smith got out of the inning as Manzardo whiffed at a curveball in the dirt, and that would be it for the rookie. In his second career start, he pitched six innings with two hits, zero earned runs, one walk and six strikeouts.

The White Sox get another shot at the Guardians Wednesday at 6:10 p.m. ET, with Sean Burke taking the mound against Cleveland starter Logan Allen.

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