Sean Manaea on Sunday pitched two-hit ball over seven innings and Francisco Lindor belted his 29th home run as the New York Mets beat Chicago 2-0 to hand the White Sox their franchise-record 107th loss.
Chicago (31-107) broke the club mark for losses set by the 1970 team. The White Sox also completed the first 0-10 homestand in franchise history, becoming the first team since the 1965 Mets to have three 10-game losing streaks in one season.
Lindor gave New York a 1-0 lead when he connected leading off the fourth inning against Garrett Crochet. Starling Marte drove an RBI double off the center-field wall against Justin Anderson in the ninth inning as the Mets squeezed out their fourth straight win and ninth in 13 games to finish a 7-3 trip.
Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA Today
They pulled within a game of Atlanta for the final National League wild-card spot when the Braves lost 3-2 at Philadelphia in 11 innings.
“We knew coming in here, especially after playing the Padres and the Diamondbacks, that we needed to keep the intensity, we needed to stay locked in, match their energy,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I’m proud of the guys that we were able to do it one day at a time, and finally getting that last one 2-0 was important for us.”
Manaea (11-5) struck out five, walked two and hit a batter with a pitch. The left-hander is 3-0 in his past four outings, and New York has won 12 of his past 15 starts.
Manaea retired his first 11 batters before walking Lenyn Sosa, but then picked off Sosa at first base to end the fourth inning. The White Sox did not get a hit until Miguel Vargas lined a single to left with two outs in the fifth.
Chicago threatened to score in the seventh inning, only to come away empty-handed.
Luis Robert Jr got hit by a pitch leading off, but was thrown out trying to steal second. Andrew Vaughn walked with two outs and Gavin Sheets singled in front of sliding left fielder Jesse Winker, putting runners on the corners. Manaea then retired Vargas on a fly to left to escape that jam.
Reed Garrett retired all three batters in the eighth inning. Edwin Diaz struck out the side in the ninth for his 16th save in 22 chances as the Mets completed their sixth shutout of the season — all since July 11.
The White Sox were shut out for the 15th time. They have been on the wrong end of 22 series sweeps — top in the majors by a wide margin. Miami are second with 10.
Chicago are 4-36 since the All-Star break and 3-18 under interim manager Grady Sizemore. The worst White Sox homestand prior to this one was when they went 0-7 from May 23 to 29. They have lost 12 straight games at Guaranteed Rate Field, equaling a season high.
Crochet (6-10), one of Chicago’s few bright spots, tied an American League record by striking out the first seven batters and whiffed eight in all over 3-1/3 innings. The All-Star left-hander gave up one run and three hits without a walk.
The White Sox are limiting Crochet’s workload because he missed most of the past two seasons following Tommy John surgery and was a reliever before that.
“He was pretty frustrated when I came out there, but I think he knows the situation and what we’re trying to do,” Sizemore said. “He threw well. He was on, he had good stuff. It’s going to be tough when he’s on a short leash like that and a pitch count, that he’s never going to get to go as deep as he wants.”
Elsewhere, the Cardinals crushed the Yankees 14-7, the Padres stung the Rays 4-3, the Orioles routed the Rockies 6-1, the Cubs thrashed the Nationals 14-1, the Astros dethroned the Royals 7-2, the Diamondbacks downed the Dodgers 14-3 and the Twins beat the Blue Jays 4-3.
The Angels sank the Mariners 3-2, the Tigers tamed the Red Sox 4-1, the Marlins mastered the Giants 7-5, the Guardians plundered the Pirates 6-1, the Rangers edged the Athletics 6-4 in 10 innings and the Reds pipped the Brewers 4-3 in 11 innings.
Additional reporting by staff writer
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS