Ryan Noda appeared to have his second home run as a member of the Chicago White Sox.
But Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder Jake McCarthy jumped at the wall and made a spectacular catch in the second inning Tuesday at Rate Field.
Two pitches later, Luis Robert Jr. made sure no one could reach his long fly as he drilled a home run that reached the Sox bullpen beyond the left-field wall.
That was the first of only three hits the entire game for the Sox in a 4-1 loss to the Diamondbacks in front of 13,001.
“These last two games it’s really shown up where they’ve been very aggressive in the zone with the fastball and we just haven’t responded in the way that we need to, to score runs,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “That’s going to be something that we continue to talk about, continue to train and focus on and hopefully we can buck that trend here.”
Arizona starter Ryne Nelson allowed one run on one hit with seven strikeouts and three walks in five innings. The Diamondbacks took control by scoring three runs in the seventh inning — featuring an RBI single by Alek Thomas, a sacrifice fly by Jose Herrera and an RBI single by Geraldo Perdomo.
The Sox have lost 11 of their last 13. And at 25-55, they are 30 games under .500 for the first time this season.
Mike Vasil pitched well in the loss, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits with one strikeout in a career-high 5 1/3 innings.
Photos: Chicago White Sox lose to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Rate Field
“Mike did a great job, more coverage from Mike than we anticipated going in,” Venable said. “He looked great. There was some hard contact, some soft contact but he was in control the whole time.”
Vasil followed opener Jordan Leasure, who allowed one run in his one inning while making the first start of his career.
“Spending as much time as I have in the bullpen with all those guys — and obviously we’ve ran into a couple injuries (to starters Jonathan Cannon and Davis Martin) so had to be able to get creative — so I think tonight for me, it was all about how deep can I go to save my buddies in the bullpen and save those guys and be able to give the team the best chance to win and also flexibility moving forward the rest of the week,” Vasil said.
Robert is hopeful the second-inning at-bat is a step in the right direction.
“That’s what you want to do,” Robert said through an interpreter. “Today, I felt like I used to feel in the past. Those were the kind of pitches I wasn’t missing before. It was good to be able to put the bat there to hit the ball and get that result. I think that was the part I’ve been missing this season.
“I’m feeling good. I’ve been feeling healthy, which is the most important part. I’ve been working every day hard, trying to get rid of this situation, this moment passing through. Just working hard.”
It was his second home run in the last five games after a 441-foot two-run home run Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
As to whether that homer served as a turning point, Robert said, “I can’t say that right now.”
“I still don’t feel like I’m at the moment of my hitting,” Robert said. “That pitch in that game was kind of similar to this. It was a pitch in the middle of the strike zone and I was able to put the bat on the ball and take advantage of that mistake. That’s what I used to do before and that’s what I’m trying to do now.”
Besides Robert, the only other hits on Tuesday for the Sox were a single by Chase Meidroth in the sixth inning and a double by Mike Tauchman in the eighth.
The Sox trailed 4-1 in the eighth, but had runners on first and second with one out. Third baseman Tim Tawa made a nice play to field a hard-hit grounder by Miguel Vargas and turned it into an inning-ending double play.
“Pitching and defense wins games and they did a great job defending,” Venable said. “Any ball we did hit hard, they caught. Made some really nice plays and that was the difference. You’ve got to turn balls in play into outs and they did a great job tonight.”