The Guaranteed Rate Field crowd knew the magnitude of the moment as José Abreu faced Emmanuel Clase with the tying run on second in the 10th inning Tuesday.
Abreu singled to right-center, scoring Elvis Andrus to give the Chicago White Sox hope in a must-win situation against the Cleveland Guardians.
The game went to the 11th, where it all fell apart for the Sox. The Guardians scored five runs in the inning and won 10-7 in front of 23,242.
Myles Straw broke the 5-5 tie with a two-run double against Jake Diekman. Steven Kwan followed with an RBI single and José Ramírez brought in a run with a sacrifice fly as the Guardians handed the Sox a devastating defeat in the American League Central race.
The Sox trail the Guardians by five games.
The night began with AL Cy Young Award candidate Dylan Cease on the mound for the Sox. He got through some early bumps and allowed one run on four hits with three strikeouts and three walks in six innings.
He received defensive help from second baseman Josh Harrison, who made spectacular plays — one on a grounder and the other a soft liner — to rob Amed Rosario of two hits.
The run Cease allowed came in the second. Andrés Giménez began the inning with a slicer to left. AJ Pollock tripped while running for the ball, and Giménez reached third for a triple. He scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Austin Hedges.
Pollock played a role in helping the Sox take the lead in the sixth.
Andrus led off the inning with a single. He stole second, a call that was upheld after a video challenge by the Guardians. Yoán Moncada walked and the Guardians replaced starter Aaron Civale with reliever Nick Sandlin.
Abreu got hit by Sandlin’s first pitch, loading the bases for Eloy Jiménez, who tied the game with a single to center.
Vaughn struck out, bringing Pollock to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. Pollock hit a grounder to second that looked like it would be an inning-ending double play.
Giménez tossed the ball to Rosario for the force at second, but Rosario’s throw to first skipped past Owen Miller. Two runs scored during the sequence to make it 3-1.
The Guardians took advantage of consecutive walks to start the seventh to tie the game.
Kwan drove in a run with a single, and with two outs and runners on the corners, Ramírez hit a grounder deep in the hole at short and just beat Andrus’ throw to first. A run scored on the infield hit, tying the game at 3.
Rosario tried to break the tie by scoring from second on Josh Naylor’s infield hit. Andrus made a diving stop in the outfield grass and threw to the plate. Catcher Seby Zavala applied the tag, and Rosario was called out to end the inning.
He appeared to beat the tag, but the Guardians couldn’t challenge, having lost the sixth-inning review.
Naylor’s RBI single and a sacrifice fly to center by Oscar Gonzalez gave the Guardians a 5-3 lead in 10th.
The Sox got within a run when Zavala scored on a fielder’s choice. Andrus reached first on the play and stole second. Abreu drove him in with the hit on a 1-2 pitch to tie the game at 5.
The Guardians responded in a major way in the 11th.
Pollock hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th, but the Sox didn’t get closer and find themselves in a huge hole with 14 games remaining in the regular season.
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