Rate Field had gone quiet on Elvis Night. Sean Manaea had been carving through the White Sox order for five innings, the Mets had a 4-0 lead, and the ball was not carrying with the wind blowing in. Then the sixth happened, and by the time the night ended Chicago had hit four home runs and won it 6-4 in the bottom of the ninth.
Manaea walked Munetaka Murakami with one out in the sixth, and even that took some help. Murakami won an automated ball-strike challenge on a 2-2 called third strike and stayed alive. Five pitches later Miguel Vargas hit his 29th home run of the season, a two-run shot that made it 4-2. Randal Grichuk followed with his 11th. Colson Montgomery finished it with his 27th, and the game was tied.
Three swings, no outs in between. It was the second time this season the White Sox have gone back-to-back-to-back, the first coming in Arizona in April with Murakami, Montgomery and Vargas doing the damage.
“It was getting electric out there,” Montgomery said.
Rogers ends it
The game sat at 4-4 into the ninth. Nate Lavender and Daniel Duarte handled things for New York after Manaea left, and Jordan Hicks and Bryan Hudson kept Chicago quiet, so the ninth came down to Jefry Yan against the bottom of the White Sox order.
Yan walked Montgomery to open the inning after thinking he had struck him out on an 0-2 pitch. He started his celebration early. The pitch was called a ball. Yan recovered to get two outs, then left one over the plate for Jake Rogers, who drove it to left-center for a two-run walk-off homer.
Rogers is a waiver claim. He now has a game-winning home run in a season where the White Sox have gotten them from all over the roster.
Grant Taylor worked around a leadoff walk in the top of the ninth to pick up the win and improve to 5-2. Sean Burke matched Manaea for six innings with four runs and seven hits allowed, no walks and four strikeouts, and left with another no-decision. He has given up a home run in every August start and is still looking for his first win since July 19.
Where it left the series
Manaea’s final line was four runs and five hits over six with two walks and four strikeouts, which is a respectable start on paper and does not resemble what the sixth inning actually looked like. That is what a first-place lineup does on the third time through.
Chicago moved to 67-61 with the win and stayed in front in the AL Central. The Mets took Saturday’s game 10-5, which set up a rubber match that ended the same way Friday did, with a ball landing in the seats and the South Siders walking off the field.
