The White Sox were seven outs away from a combined no-hitter Tuesday against the Yankees when a flyball touched grass right between Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr.
They both could have caught it. The latter probably should have.
Joe Kelly took over for Lucas Giolito, who had thrown a few too many pitches to see his six-inning, no-hit masterpiece through.
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Kelly got the first two batters looking and swinging, and put a runner on first with a five-pitch walk. Then, Isiah Kiner-Falefa smacked a changeup to left-center with enough hang time for two separate outfielders to, at the very least, attempt the catch.
Instead, both Benintendi and Robert ran full sprint, stopped, and awkwardly watched the ball plop down in front of them.
“Yeah, it seemed like some sort of miscommunication situation,” Giolito said. “I mean, it happens.”
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White Sox manager Pedro Grifol took it as an opportunity to laud Robert Jr.’s hustle in the outfield.
“Robert goes after every ball and he’s really aggressive, and that’s what we want him to do,” Grifol said. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but obviously something did happen as far as communication is concerned because he’s so good at just going to get everything. That’s what we want him to do – go get everything.
“He’s just so good at going almost gap-to-gap. Maybe he heard [Benintendi] coming. I’m not sure. We’ll talk about it.
”This isn’t Rober Jr.’s first communicative goof in the outfield this season. It’s not his second or third, either. Which is why the Gold Glove-caliber season he’s having makes these mistakes all the more tiresome.
All’s well that ends that well, though, as the White Sox got the 3-2 victory and held the Yankees to three hits.
A combined no-no would have been cool, but beggars can’t be choosers. And the White Sox are definitely begging for wins as they sit 4.5 games out of first place in the AL Central.