White Sox can't hold on after Kershaw makes history

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LOS ANGELES -- Everything was pretty close to perfect for the White Sox over eight innings Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium before the Dodgers turned things into another perfect day in Los Angeles with three runs in the ninth for a 5-4 victory.

In reality, things were exciting for everyone involved well before first pitch, with Clayton Kershaw needing three strikeouts to become the 20th pitcher in Major League Baseball to record 3,000 strikeouts. Kershaw reached that milestone on his 100th and final offering of the night, getting Vinny Capra looking with an 85.3 mph slider.

But the White Sox (28-58) still were in line for an impressive victory … until they weren’t.

“Obviously, tough end of the game,” said White Sox left fielder Austin Slater, who hit his fourth career homer off Kershaw and tripled. “That's something that we're not satisfied with. We're going to keep working to try to close out games.”

Grant Taylor’s first Major League decision ended up as his first Major League loss, as all three ninth-inning runs were charged to the hard-throwing rookie. Taylor cruised through the eighth with two strikeouts and was asked to finish the victory working two innings as he did so adeptly against the Giants on Saturday.

Michael Conforto opened the ninth with a single and Taylor threw the next eight pitches out of the zone to walk Tommy Edman and Hyesong Kim, loading the bases for Shohei Ohtani with nobody out. Not exactly ideal.

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Taylor retired Ohtani on a run-scoring fielder’s choice grounder, giving way to Steven Wilson, who yielded Mookie Betts’ game-tying sacrifice fly and Freddie Freeman’s walk-off single two batters later. Wilson looked as if he struck out Will Smith on a 2-2 pitch for the third out but didn’t get the call, eventually walking the All-Star catcher and facing Freeman.

A night such as Wednesday is just as much part of the learning experience for Taylor as is throwing 17 of his 18 four-seam fastballs at 99 mph or above, which he did Saturday.

“Yeah, it’s a big ask to have him come out there a second time,” said White Sox manager Will Venable. “We’ve asked him to do that before and he was able to do it. Obviously [he] wasn’t able to command the ball there.”

“After the base hit, it was really tough for him, especially being a rookie and all,” said White Sox catcher Edgar Quero, who had three hits and reached base four times. “He had a really good inning in the eighth but it’s part of baseball. I know he’s going to come back better.”

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Sean Burke allowed one run over six innings, with that run coming on his first pitch of the game in the second when Andy Pages took him deep for a 2-1 Dodgers lead. Brandon Eisert opened, followed by Burke, who walked one and struck out five over 88 pitches.

Burke’s five strikeouts left him five short of 100 for his career, just 2,905 behind Kershaw. Kershaw struck out Miguel Vargas, his former teammate with the Dodgers, and Lenyn Sosa going into the sixth, with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts leaving him to try for history as his pitch count rose.

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There was a massive celebration following the Capra strikeout, with the southpaw eventually taking a curtain call to acknowledge the euphoric fans in attendance.

“I didn't expect that backdoor slider to kind of come back,” Capra said. “He made a really good pitch. He's a really good pitcher, and he's been doing it for a long time, so congrats to him.”

“He’s a great guy. As an ex-teammate, happy for him,” said Venable, whose final stop of his playing days came with the Dodgers in 2016. “For us, it was just another thing that happened. We were focused on the game. And I thought we did a really good job against him.”

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Venable was right about the White Sox hitters who made Kershaw work. Being denied their own celebration was the toughest part of the night, as the White Sox fell to 5-21 in one-run games.

“These never feel good and they never will, the way that game ended,” Slater said. “But to see a piece of history happen on the field and be there for that was pretty cool to be a part of it one way or another.”

“It’s a tough way to end it,” Venable said. “But some really good stuff out there.”

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