CLEVELAND – Nate Jones had Carlos Santana down in the count at 0-2 on two sliders.
Catcher Alex Avila called for an elevated fastball, but Jones thought he had a better idea and shook him off, opting for one more slider.
The rest of the story, as much of the last five weeks have unfolded for the White Sox, didn’t end well for Jones as Santana connected for a walk-off home run to give the Cleveland Indians a 3-2 victory before 27,912 delighted fans Progressive Field.
The usual wild celebration scene ensued at home plate around Santana, who has three walk-off homers against the Sox in his career – as a dejected Jones walked into the visitors clubhouse.
“I shook to that pitch,’’ Jones said after staring into his locker for an extended spell. “So the game was 100 percent on me. I just didn’t execute that pitch. He did what he was supposed to do with it when you leave it over the middle.’’
For Jose Quintana, the story was so painfully predictable: Another strong outing, another Sox loss. The left-hander, snakebitten by poor run support his entire career, lowered his ERA to 2.63 with 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball, yielding an RBI double to Jason Kipnis in the eighth inning that broke a 1-1 tie after Quintana and Trevor Bauer battled it out for seven innings.
In his last seven starts, Quintana has received five runs of support. He struck out six, walked one and allowed six hits.
“You know, I hope that it changes,’’ said Quintana, who is taking this year’s tough luck harder because he believes the Sox are contenders.
“I believe that changes.’’
“Made one mistake all game, the Kipnis double,’’ Avila said, “but he was fantastic today. “That’s frustrating for us, too, probably more so because we all love him to death. He’s an amazing person, works his a– off and he’s always going out there giving a great effort and always pitching a quality game.’’
Quintana was spared a seventh straight loss on his record when Brett Lawrie doubled with one out in the ninth against closer Cody Allen and scored on Avisail Garcia’s double off the right-center field well to make it 2-2.
Jose Abreu drove in the Sox’ first run with a grounder to shortstop, scoring Adam Eaton (triple) from third. In the eighth against Bryan Shaw, Tim Anderson (1-for-4) singled and stole second but Abreu grounded out and Todd Frazier struck out with Anderson on third, dropping his average to .202.
Frazier is fighting through skids of 0-for-15 and 8-for-67.
“That’s the tough one,’’ Ventura said. “He knows it. It’s not news to him. He has to grind through it, and where he’s at hitting the homers [19], you have to be able to knock in something besides hitting the homer.’’
The Sox (33-34), who are 3 ½ games behind the Indians in the AL Central, are 10-24 in their last 34 games. Ventura is feeling more heat with each defeat, but he says he continues to take his job a day at a time as always.
“I just go,’’ he said before the game. “You can sit back and do all that [assess his own performance], but I’m just going day to day and trying to get us to win that day.
“You prepare and do what you need to do that day and the next day you have to figure out, you come in the clubhouse, you look at your players and figure out what the needs are and you go for that.’’
After taking two of three from the Tigers at home, the Sox needed to carry that small portion of momentum into this one. To lose in walk-off fashion punched the gut harder than usual.
“Yeah, absolutely,’’ Jones said. “We are all bunched together [in the division] right now. So, to win this one would have kept us rolling like we did winning the series at home from Detroit. It’s huge. Every game is huge.’’
