Chicago White Sox's division lead drops to half-game after 7-3 loss -- their 4th straight defeat and 9th in 12

LaMond Pope, Chicago Tribune on Sep 12, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ST. LOUIS — The Chicago White Sox held a 51/2-game lead in the American League Central on Aug. 16.

That lead is down to a half-game after the Sox suffered their fourth straight loss Friday, falling 7-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals in front of 30,274 at Busch Stadium.

“Just an ugly one all the way around,” manager Will Venable said. “Starting with me. None of the moves I made tonight worked. Offensively we were fine. Had some opportunities there, swung the bats well. Pitching-wise, (starter Anthony) Kay was behind in the count really the whole day kind of piled up on him there.

“Really, base running and defense sticks out to me where we had some sloppy plays defensively. A couple base running plays that we’ve got to clean up. A game of a lot of little stuff that really compiled into an ugly game.”

The Cleveland Guardians continued closing in with a 5-2 victory Friday against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis.

The Sox lost for the ninth time in their last 12 games despite getting two home runs from Chase Meidroth.

“The vibes aren’t down,” Meidroth said. “Tough stretch, ran into some good teams with good arms. They just executed a little bit better. We have to move forward and find a way to win tomorrow.”

The Sox couldn’t have asked for a better start, with Meidroth homering on the first pitch following a 1-hour, 10-minute weather-related delay.

The Cardinals tied the score on an RBI double from Alec Burleson with two outs in the bottom of the first. They took the lead in the second. Batting with runners on the corners and no outs, Masyn Winn hit a grounder to third. Colson Montgomery threw to second for the forceout. Leo Bernal, the runner on third, headed home and scored ahead of Meidroth’s throw to the plate.

“Could have made a better throw to home. That one is on me,” Meidroth said.

Meidroth tied the score with the home run leading off the third inning. But the Cardinals went back ahead 3-2 on a Joshua Báez RBI single in the bottom of the third against Kay.

The left-hander allowed three runs on five hits with two strikeouts and one walk in four innings.

“Overall, felt pretty good,” Kay said. “Feel like they hit some pretty good pitches. Just got to go back to it and see what we could have done differently.”

The Cardinals built on the lead in the fifth, scoring three runs on four straight hits against reliever Trevor Richards.

Jordan Walker doubled and scored on a Burleson single. Burleson scored on a Báez double. Báez scored on a Bernal single, giving the Cardinals a 6-2 lead.

While the Cardinals made the most of their opportunities, the Sox went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. They left 12 on base.

Randal Grichuk reached third base with one out in the first inning, but the Sox didn’t get him home. The Sox loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth, but reliever Gordon Graceffo struck out pinch hitter Tristan Peters.

The Sox loaded the bases again in the sixth, this time with one out. Grichuk struck out against reliever Luis Gastelum, and Cardinals center fielder Nathan Church made a nice catch at the wall on a long fly ball from Miguel Vargas to end the inning.

“You’ve got to give our offense credit here as we’ve had a number of opportunities the last few games, specifically with the bases loaded,” Venable said. “Even with less than two outs, a couple of them with two outs. We’re doing some really good things to get in those spots. But just not getting that big hit that we need.

“I thought today that Vargas crushes that ball to the wall and they make a good play. Braden (Montgomery) crushes the ball to the wall (in the seventh), they make a good play (another catch by Church). So we’re not feeling sorry for ourselves at all. But I think there’s some underlying things offensively that are going well. We’re just not getting that big hit to cash in.”

It all added up to the division race tightening heading down the stretch.

“I think if you told us at the beginning of the year that with 15 games left in the year we’d have a division lead, I think everyone in this clubhouse would have signed up for it,” Kay said. “We’re just going to keep taking it day by day and keep grinding it out.”