Eloy, White Sox denied by jaw-dropping catch

CLEVELAND -- The first reaction from Eloy Jiménez simply was to laugh.

Really, what else could the locked-in White Sox phenom do after Cleveland center fielder Oscar Mercado made not only a game-saving catch but a potential season-saving grab against Jimenez in the ninth inning of the Indians' 8-6 victory over the White Sox on Wednesday night at Progressive Field?

• Box score

After trailing by an 8-2 margin in the seventh, the White Sox scored two in the eighth on José Abreu's 29th home run and scored two more in the ninth to chase closer Brad Hand with a string of impressive at-bats. Tim Anderson launched his 15th home run for his third hit of the night, and the White Sox knocked out three two-strike hits off the Cleveland southpaw to go with a Yoan Moncada walk.

That rally set the stage for Jimenez, with the bases loaded, one out and Nick Wittgren in the game. Jimenez also fell behind at 0-2, but knowing what making contact meant in that situation, Jimenez was determined not to strike out and worked the count full.

On the next pitch, Jimenez connected on Wittgren's four-seam fastball with a 110.8-mph exit velocity, per Statcast, looking for certain to be a bases-clearing go-ahead hit. But Mercado had other designs on that outcome, racing back and making a spectacular lunging catch.

Along with the laugh, Jimenez put his hands on his head and tipped his cap.

"I don't know where he came from, but it was a nice play for him," Jimenez said. "I need to give him credit because it was a good catch and a good moment. I started laughing because I never expect him to catch that ball, but it's OK."

"Obviously that young man in center field, Mercado made a great catch," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "Probably one of the best catches I've ever seen."

This setback, finished off by a Ryan Goins strikeout, dropped the White Sox to 61-78 overall and marked their eighth loss in the past nine games. But in the midst of this rough stretch, the outlines of a very potent attack are starting to shine through.

Abreu's home run raised his RBI total to 106, one short of his career high. That drive also represented Abreu's 175th career homer and his 400th extra-base hit, going along with 212 doubles and 13 triples, making him the 11th player in franchise history to reach that mark.

Yes, Abreu should have tagged up on Jimenez's ninth-inning blast that resulted in no runs scoring. It also proved to be a meaningless run with the two-run deficit.

"He could have been tagging," Renteria said. "Would've given us a run, got us one closer. That wasn't the game. The game was that catch."

Zack Collins, added to the White Sox roster on Tuesday, singled home a run and walked. Jimenez produced his sixth multi-hit game in seven outings, showing the sheer damage he can inflict when he's locked in.

Leury Garcia, Anderson, Abreu, Moncada and James McCann all came through with one out against Hand, and all five should be part of the team in 2020. Jimenez was the only one who didn't get a hit in the late-inning White Sox comeback, and he hit the ball just about as hard as he could, especially with two strikes.

But it was Mercado who left him laughing through the shock.

"I felt like I had a pretty good jump on that ball," Mercado said. "The only thing I didn't know, it was just so much on a line, I wasn't sure if I was going to have the time to get to it, but thankfully I did."

"Lot of fight in here," Anderson said. "We competed every inning tonight and gave ourselves a chance but fell short."

"When I see that kind of play, I just tip my cap because it was a good play and good moment," Jimenez said. "We battled, and we compete and we showed them we are here."