CLEVELAND -- Luis Robert Jr. initially answered a postgame question about the final play of a 7-6 White Sox walk-off loss to the Guardians Tuesday night at Progressive Field with a question of his own.

“What happened?” Robert asked in English, not seeing anything out of the ordinary with the game-deciding play.

Well, what actually happened certainly didn’t dictate the game’s outcome, but instead put a weird finish to a slightly strange series opener in which the White Sox (24-63) fought diligently against the American League Central leaders. Andrés Giménez opened the bottom of the ninth with a single to center off closer Michael Kopech (2-7), moved to second on Tyler Freeman’s ground out to first baseman Andrew Vaughn, and took third on a profoundly wild pitch from Kopech when his cleat caught against pinch-hitter Bo Naylor.

Naylor followed with a 309 ft fly ball to Robert in center, according to Statcast, which Robert had to back up a step or two to catch. Robert is a true five-tool player and has a strong arm, but elected not to make a throw as Giménez raced home.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. I didn’t have a chance,” said Robert through interpreter Billy Russo. “He hit the ball, and I caught it. That’s it.”

“He’s playing in because there’s one out,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “He’s going back. Even if he runs back and comes in, there’s no play there. If we’re going to dissect that, we’re making something out of nothing. You’re not going to throw that guy out from there.”

Grifol’s point is well taken. To be honest, the White Sox aren’t in this game without the offense from Robert.

In the sixth inning, with the Guardians (53-30) holding a 3-1 lead, Robert connected on a Carlos Carrasco slider for his 10th home run of the season, pulled down the left-field line. It scored Korey Lee to tie the game.

Cleveland scored three in the bottom of the sixth, punctuated by Tyler Freeman’s 0-2 connection off Chris Flexen for his seventh home run. But the White Sox fought right back with three in the seventh via a two-strike run-scoring double from Lenyn Sosa off Cade Smith, and a two-strike, two-out single to center from Robert off Hunter Gaddis, bringing in the two game-tying runs.

“I’m going out every day to try to do my best, and if the results are good, they are good. If not, I try the next day,” said Robert, who has reached base safely in 11 of his last 12 games and homered in three of his last five. “We came prepared to the game. At the end, things didn’t go our way. But it was a good game.”

While the White Sox showed unending fight, they had some miscues contributing to the defeat. Flexen, who allowed three earned runs over six innings, balked Freeman to second after a leadoff single in the fifth and one out later, Brayan Rocchio singled him home.

Paul DeJong, who was thrown out at the plate to end the second on Sosa’s double to right-center, was charged with an error that pushed home the go-ahead run in the sixth when his throw hit Josh Naylor in the back as he tried to get him going from second to third on David Fry’s groundout to shortstop. The play was just as much good baserunning from Josh Naylor, who got in the way of the toss.

“You can call it really good baserunning on Naylor, but it was an error,” Grifol said. “That cost us three runs. I talked to DeJong about it, and I praised him for it.

“Use your instincts, and if you think you’ve got the guy at third base, go for it. That was a combination of really good baserunning and the ball just happened to hit him. But I thought he made the right decision going there.”

Ultimately, the White Sox battle came up a little short as they fell to 4-4 on the season against Cleveland and 0-14 in series road openers. It was a near-impossible final play for Robert.

“I was a little shocked there was no attempt, but I’m not surprised at the same time because Giménez has such good speed,” Bo Naylor said. “It’s definitely going to be a tough play. Throw or not, I trusted Giménez.”

“No matter what, if you lose, it’s always tough,” Robert said. “You are here to win games.”