Yoán Moncada nearly had a run-scoring extra-base hit in the top of the seventh inning for the Chicago White Sox.
Right fielder Adolis García kept the Texas Rangers ahead, making a leaping catch near the wall in right-center for the final out of the inning.
“I thought it was a homer,” Sox acting manager Miguel Cairo said. “I was kind of excited, but … it goes like that sometimes.”
Hits were hard to come by for the Sox, who lost 2-1 on Saturday in front of 31,121 at Globe Life Field.
Five Rangers pitchers limited the Sox to just three hits — a Luis Robert single in the first, a Yasmani Grandal home run in the sixth and a Romy González single in the seventh.
“We hit the ball a few times hard,” said Cairo, who subbed while Tony La Russa served a one-game suspension tied to Mike Wright Jr. throwing at Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Shohei Ohtani on Thursday.
“We didn’t get lucky. We played hard. They just pitched a little better and they got the hit in the right moment, and we didn’t capitalize a few times with men on base.”
The Sox magic number for clinching the American League Central remained at five with the loss and the Cleveland Indians’ 11-3 victory against the New York Yankees.
“We haven’t clinched yet, so everyone knows there’s a lot at stake here,” Sox starter Lance Lynn said. “We’ve got to play good baseball down the stretch. We’re in a good, comfortable lead (in the division), but it would be nice to clinch here soon so we can line things up the way we need to at the end.
“We still have some time to be able to do all that, and I like where we’re at.”
Lynn (10-5) was the tough-luck losing pitcher, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits with five strikeouts and two walks in 5⅓ innings.
“He’s a horse,” Cairo said. “He was (at) 70 pitches when he came out for the sixth, and of course I’m going to let him pitch. I’m glad he’s coming back to be full strength (from right knee inflammation). It was nice to see him pitch really good.”
Lynn said he felt “good” in the 83-pitch outing against his former team. He pitched for the Rangers in 2019 and 2020 before being traded to the Sox during the offseason.
“Whenever you come back to a place you’ve played, its always fun,” Lynn said. .
“I got up to the pitch count mark and then we’re on our way to the next one, so we’re in a good spot heading down the stretch.”
He’ll continue to work on his sinker.
“The command wasn’t where I wanted it to,” Lynn said. “I gave up some groundball hits that just got through. But we were able to induce some double plays and some groundball outs too. It’s finding that mix, each pitch, each quadrant, what you want to do and being able to physically get them where you need to.
“We’re in a good spot moving forward, and next time I’ll be able to go more, pitch-count-wise and go from there.”
Lynn almost got a double play to get out of the fourth without allowing a run, but a video review showed that Jonah Heim narrowly beat Leury García’s throw to first. Andy Ibáñez scored on the play to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
After Grandal’s home run in the sixth tied it at 1, the Rangers went ahead in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single from pinch hitter DJ Peters against reliever Garrett Crochet.
Moncada almost provided the big hit with González on second for the Sox in the seventh, but Adolis García made the game-saving catch. And Rangers second baseman Nick Solak leaped to snag Leury García’s hard liner with runners on first and second for the final out in the eighth.
“We hit balls and they caught it, and tomorrow’s another day,” Cairo said. “I know they are going to come ready to play.”