White Sox insist 'it's not too late' in division race

DETROIT -- If the chosen topic of conversation is that time is running short on the 2022 White Sox playoff hopes, then don’t bring said talk around closer Liam Hendriks.

“It’s never too late until we are eliminated,” said Hendriks, after the White Sox lost to the Tigers, 3-2 in 10 innings, during Friday’s series opener at Comerica Park. “So, yeah, let’s stop saying it’s too late, because it’s not too late until we are eliminated.”

Hendriks’ attitude has to be admired and shouldn’t be surprising, considering his intense competitive level. It’s no different than anyone else on the White Sox (74-71), who readily admit they dug themselves a deficit they are trying to fight through currently.

But the facts also work a bit against them. Cleveland’s victory over Minnesota, with Ernie Clement scoring from second on an eighth-inning wild pitch, raised the Guardians’ lead over the White Sox in the American League Central to four and dropped the elimination number to 15.

Time, or lack thereof, eventually will be the White Sox biggest enemy, which makes Friday’s loss especially disappointing. Detroit starter Matt Manning held Chicago scoreless on three hits and five strikeouts over seven innings, although the team missed on a few scoring chances. But José Abreu delivered a two-out, two-run double off Joe Jiménez in the eighth to give the White Sox a chance.

That chance ended in the 10th. Luis Robert took over as the automatic runner in the top of the frame, replacing Yasmani Grandal, but Alex Lange proceeded to strike out Josh Harrison, Elvis Andrus and Yoán Moncada to strand Robert at second.

White Sox acting manager Miguel Cairo could have bunted with Harrison to start the 10th. But he explained the rationale postgame.

“If I would have bunted right there to move it over, Lange is nasty,” Cairo said. “We've got Andrew [Vaughn] coming up and 'Moncy.' He throws a lot of sliders, so I was just ... you're the visitor so I want to be aggressive. It didn't work out."

Cairo knew about Lange’s 13 wild pitches, which could have scored a run from third after a successful bunt, but reiterated the right-hander was “nasty.”

“We know him,” Cairo said. “I wouldn't change anything that I did. You've got to trust your hitters and he did his job. We didn't."

With Ryan Kreidler on second to start the 10th, Willi Castro laid down a bunt with a possible play at third base after Hendriks made the pickup. But nobody was at third and Hendriks one-hopped the throw to first, putting runners on first and third with nobody out.

The error was just the second of Hendriks’ career.

“'Moncy' was charging in case that ball was to him,” Hendriks said. “It’s exactly the play. But yeah, it was just unfortunate that it happened in this situation. That would have been the third out there and we all of a sudden get a chance to hit again.”

Hendriks struck out Riley Greene for the first out and then, after a couple of mound meetings, went after Victor Reyes with free swinging Javier Báez on deck and first base open after Castro swiped second. Hendriks fired three four-seam fastballs past Reyes, but a fourth attempt resulted in a walk-off sacrifice fly that would have been the third out without the error.

“At the end of the day, I need to throw a better pitch than that last one,” Hendriks said. “He swung through two fastballs at the top of the zone and then I decide to try to do the same thing and just missed down.

“He put a good swing on it. It is what it is now. That one hurts a little bit. We clawed back in the eighth and that was something we’ve been doing a little bit of late. We weren’t able to squeak this one out.”

There was no White Sox talk of Cleveland’s victory. In fact, Hendriks didn’t know until it was brought up by the media. Chicago needs to keep winning, but as Detroit showed on Friday, this postseason push won’t be easy.

“I think they thought they were going to come in and get some easy wins and we didn't like that,” Manning said. “So, we're going to fight back."

“We still have three against [the Guardians],” Hendriks said. “We’ve got some guys we have played decent against, so it will all even out at the end of the day. If we win, we have a chance. If we don’t, then we don’t.”