White Sox Swept at Home by Pirates, AL Central Lead Down to 1.5 Games

The Chicago White Sox managed two hits Thursday night at Rate Field, and the second one came in the ninth inning. They leave town Friday swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates, their American League Central lead down to 1.5 games over Cleveland.

Pittsburgh won 2-0, closing out a series it took 9-3 on Tuesday and 4-2 on Wednesday. Chicago is 75-71 with 16 games left. Cleveland, idle Thursday, is 74-73.

Jared Jones did most of the work. He threw seven scoreless innings for the Pirates, one hit, two walks and eight strikeouts on 90 pitches. He had a no-hitter through six and two outs into the seventh before Colson Montgomery doubled off the right-field wall. Randal Grichuk added a pinch-hit single in the ninth, and that was the Chicago offense. Luke Weaver pitched the eighth and Mason Montgomery finished for his 12th save.

Oneil Cruz drove in both runs. He hit a solo homer to center off Erick Fedde, his 18th of the season, and singled home Jared Triolo off Bryan Hudson in the eighth.

Chicago used Hagen Smith as an opener in his first major league start, and he gave the club two scoreless innings on 33 pitches, with two hits and three strikeouts. Fedde followed and took the loss, dropping to 8-9. He was charged with two runs on four hits over 5 1/3 innings.

The White Sox struck out 11 times Thursday and 35 times in the series, and scored five runs in the three games. The shutout was their 11th of the season. They went 2-4 on the homestand and have lost eight of their last 11.

Manager Will Venable, speaking after the game, did not argue with any of it. "We saw some really good fastballs this series," he said. "Just weren't able to make the adjustments and move the ball forward."

Fedde, speaking afterward, said these series happen. "Sometimes a punch in the face is needed to get going," he said.

As this site reported Wednesday, the White Sox are in first place in September two years after losing 121 games. The lead was two games when Thursday began.

Chicago plays three at St. Louis, opening Friday night with left-hander Anthony Kay (9-8, 4.47 ERA) against Cardinals left-hander Matthew Liberatore (5-13, 5.57). Then come three games at Progressive Field against the Guardians beginning Monday.

Cleveland spends the weekend at Minnesota, where Parker Messick starts Friday for the Guardians against Taj Bradley. The Twins are 69-77, 4.5 games behind Cleveland in the wild-card race with 16 to play.

The Pirates, meanwhile, are 74-73 and have won nine of their last 11.

Sixteen games remain, and three of them are in Cleveland next week. Fedde put it this way: "Time to dig our cleats in and get the job done."