The Chicago White Sox hadn’t hit back-to-back home runs all season. They did it twice Thursday against the Los Angeles Dodgers — and it still wasn’t enough.
The Sox saw a four-run lead slip away on one swing, a grand slam by Chris Taylor in the sixth. The game went to extras, where Freddie Freeman ended it with an RBI single to give the Dodgers a 5-4 victory in 11 innings.
“A four-run lead, it’s a tough one to lose,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said.
The Sox built the lead with the four solo homers.
Luis Robert Jr. and Eloy Jiménez homered consecutively in the first. Jake Burger and Andrew Vaughn did the same in the fourth.
“When you are up 4-0, you feel like you have a good chance,” Burger said. “That’s baseball. After (Vaughn) hit his home run, we didn’t get any more runs. It’s on us.”
The Sox only had one more hit after the fourth inning, a double by Elvis Andrus in the seventh. He was later erased on a crucial base-running mistake.
Some of the Sox’s early success came with the batters behind in counts against Dodgers starter Michael Grove.
Robert was down 0-2 when he launched his homer to center, his 17th of the season. Jiménez was down 1-2 when he homered to right-center.
Burger was behind in the count 1-2 when he hit a laser out of the park to center for his 16th homer. Vaughn jumped on a 3-0 pitch for a home run to left.
It’s the first time the Sox have had two separate back-to-back homers in a game since July 11, 2010, when the combos of Alex Rios-Carlos Quentin and Andruw Jones-Dayán Viciedo did it against the Kansas City Royals.
Sox starter Dylan Cease dominated the Dodgers early, striking out six in the first three innings. He allowed two hits through five, both singles to Mookie Betts. But a high pitch count was going to cut short his outing.
He allowed two singles in the sixth and exited with one out in the inning, having thrown 102 pitches in the game.
“I had a couple walks that were regrettable but for the most part I commanded the zone pretty well, got ahead in the count and got a few strikeouts,” Cease said. “I left pitches up (in the sixth) so I was disappointed I didn’t finish it off.”
Reliever Reynaldo López retired the first batter he faced and then allowed a single to load the bases.
Taylor connected on a 1-1 fastball for the game-tying grand slam.
“(López) left a fastball out over the plate and Taylor hit it,” Grifol said.
Cease did not factor in the decision despite allowing two runs on four hits with 10 strikeouts and three walks in 5 1/2 innings.
The Sox had a chance to regain the lead in the seventh when Andrus doubled and moved to third on a one-out groundout. Robert walked, giving the Sox runners on the corners with Jiménez batting.
Robert attempted to steal second and catcher Will Smith faked a throw. Andrus took the bait and ventured too far off the bag. Smith threw to third and Andrus was tagged out in a rundown.
“We were stealing the bag because I knew they weren’t going to throw,” Grifol said. “He just got caught in an arm fake. It wasn’t a planned double steal or anything like that. He just got caught in an arm fake.
“Our philosophy on that was steal the bag, get another guy in scoring position because they’re not going to throw the ball to second base.”
Sox reliever Kendall Graveman got out of a jam with two on and one out in the ninth, striking out Smith and Jason Heyward to send the game to extra innings.
The best scoring chance for the Sox came with runners on the corners and one out in the 10th. But Robert and Jiménez struck out. Aaron Bummer struck out Taylor with runners on second and third and two outs to extend the game to the 11th.
Both teams struck out 16 times.
The Sox came up empty again in the 11th, and the Dodgers drew two walks to load the bases against Garrett Crochet — whose velocity was down but told Grifol he was OK to continue — before Freeman ended it with a long fly to center that landed near the warning track for a hit.
The Sox were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The Dodgers went 3-for-11.
The Sox had a chance to make up some ground in the American League Central standings, but instead dropped two of three in the series and remain 5 1/2 games out of first.
“It’s disappointing, but we fought really hard,” Cease said. “Sometimes that’s just the way baseball goes, you know?”
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