KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This one would leave a mark, if only the White Sox had undamaged space on their collective hide that hasn’t already been bruised during this beat-up and beat-down season.
How about a balk-off 7-6 loss to the last-place Royals on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium? That’s what happened after the Sox (53-86) had built a 6-0 lead against a Royals (44-96) team that celebrated near home plate when Sox closer Gregory Santos didn’t come set before a pitch to Edward Olivares with two outs and the bases loaded. Maikel Garcia waltzed home to score, dropping the Sox to a season low 33 games below .500 and to 0-5 since Chris Getz became the new general manager.
The loss was the Sox’ fifth in a row, all against losing teams from the lowly AL Central.
“I didn’t handle it well,” said Santos, manning the closer’s role for the first time in his career. “The batter was taking a long time to get in the batter’s box, and I rushed it. I didn’t step off the rubber.”
“Step off,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “He had two disengagements. He knows, you’ve got two disengagements per hitter. It doesn’t matter where the runners are. He just forgot. He looked at the clock and just forgot it.”
The inning started with shortstop Tim Anderson’s throwing error allowing Nick Loftin to reach first. Michael Massey’s single, Bobby Witt Jr.’s RBI double and an intentional walk filled the bases.
“It was a good ballgame all the way around until that last inning,” Grifol said.
The Sox hit three homers to build the lead but were 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position, failing to tack on with two good scoring chances.
“It was down to executing earlier in the game, it’s not just the last inning,” said catcher Korey Lee, who hit his first career home run. “A lot of people just see the last inning but it was a team effort. And we just came up short tonight.”
100 club
The Sox needed to finish 10-13 to avoid losing 100 games, which would be the Sox’ first 100-loss season since they went 62-100 in 2018, a rebuild year under manager Rick Renteria.
That was the Sox’ first 100-loss season since 1970. Other 100-loss seasons in club history: 51-101 in 1948 and 49-102 in 1932. The Sox were 63-99 in 2013, manager Robin Ventura’s second season.
“Wins and losses are always important at this level,” Grifol said. “I really don’t care if we’ve traded our guys or if we haven’t traded our guys. This is the major leagues, you’re expected to win. It’s really important, but it’s also really important that we do things correctly, do things with the intent of putting ourselves in a position to turn this around quickly in ’24.”
Ramirez claimed off waivers
Right-hander Yohan Ramirez, who was designated for assignment Friday, was claimed off waivers from the Pirates. Ramirez, 28, is 1-0 with a 3.67 ERA over 34„ innings with 31 strikeouts and 14 walks in 26 relief appearances over three stints with Pittsburgh this season. He will report to Triple-A Charlotte.
Ramirez is 6-4 with a 3.83 ERA and six saves in 97 career relief appearances over four major-league seasons between the Mariners (2020-22), Guardians (2022) and Pirates (2022-23).
