4 HRs, Cease's 10 K's not enough in finale

LOS ANGELES -- Hitting four home runs and getting 10 strikeouts from your starting pitcher seems to be a good recipe for Major League Baseball success.

Somehow, that plan didn’t work for the White Sox Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, as they dropped a 5-4 decision in 11 innings to Los Angeles. The White Sox (30-40) failed to gain ground on Minnesota, with the AL Central leaders falling to one over .500 after losing to Detroit.

Chicago also lost the series to the Dodgers in a winnable contest that turned into another tough defeat.

“Well-fought game. It was a tough ballgame,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “A tough one to lose, too. A four-run lead. It’s a tough one to lose. Four homers.”

“When you are up 4-0, you feel like you have a good chance,” White Sox third baseman Jake Burger said. “That’s baseball. After Vaughnie [Andrew Vaughn] hit his home run, we didn’t get any more runs. It’s on us.”

Luis Robert Jr. and Eloy Jiménez homered in the first off Dodgers starter Michael Grove, marking the first time the White Sox went back-to-back all season. They waited an entire three innings to reach that feat a second time, as Burger and Vaughn went deep off Grove to open the fourth -- accomplishing something the club hadn't done since 2010, going back to back two times in the same game.

Yasmani Grandal singled following Vaughn’s blast, but Elvis Andrus’ double opening the seventh was the lone hit for the team over the final seven innings. Andrus stayed at second when Tim Anderson struck out, one of 16 for the White Sox to match the Dodgers’ 16, and moved to third when second baseman Miguel Vargas took away a hit from Gavin Sheets.

Robert Jr. walked and then broke for second with Jiménez at the plate. Catcher Will Smith faked a throw to second and then fired to third baseman Chris Taylor to catch Andrus off the base. Taylor managed to put the tag on Andrus a few feet before crossing home.

“We were stealing the bag because I knew they weren’t going to throw,” Grifol said. “With him at third base, they throw the ball to second base, he just got caught in an arm fake. It wasn’t a planned double steal or anything like that.

“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.”

Cease struck out 10 over 5 1/3 innings, but was charged with two runs on Taylor’s 100th career homer, a game-tying grand slam against reliever Reynaldo López in the sixth. Cease had departed earlier in the frame after allowing singles to Smith and David Peralta.

“I left pitches up, so I was disappointed I didn’t finish it off,” Cease said. “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. It was pretty solid.”

The White Sox bullpen, propelled by strong outings from Joe Kelly, Gregory Santos, Kendall Graveman and Aaron Bummer, held things even until the 11th, when Freddie Freeman walked off Garrett Crochet with a bases loaded flyball single with nobody out following a 12-pitch walk drawn by Mookie Betts. Grifol and a trainer checked on Crochet in that 11th, with his average velocity of 93.6 mph three mph down from his season average, per Statcast.

“Velocity was a little down. He threw a couple of innings the other day,” Grifol said. “I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t hurt. He said he wasn’t. You got a guy throwing the upper 90s, he comes out throwing 93-94. It’s OK as long as he’s not hurt. He said he felt good.”

Burger took part of the losing blame for his strikeout leading off the 11th against southpaw Caleb Ferguson with pinch-runner Romy Gonzalez on second. If he had moved him over, then Burger believed Vaughn’s ensuing long fly ball would have brought Gonzalez home.

There were missed opportunities throughout the night on both sides of the field, but it was the Dodgers (39-30) who emerged victoriously, with the White Sox now heading to Seattle with four losses in five games.

“It’s disappointing, but we fought really hard,” Cease said. “Sometimes that’s just the way baseball goes, you know?”

“We like the four home runs,” Burger said. “But for me, I didn’t execute, and that’s it.”