Jake Burger homers twice, but the Chicago White Sox drop their 6th straight with a 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians
The Chicago White Sox needed to find a way to keep Jake Burger in the lineup when third baseman Yoán Moncada returned from the injured list Tuesday.
So the team moved him to second base.
Regardless of the position, Burger continues to do damage at the plate.
He homered twice in Thursday’s 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in front of 20,893 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“Burger (hit) the two homers, but that wasn’t enough to do what we came here to do today,” manager Pedro Grifol said.
The Sox lost their sixth straight, which is their second-longest slide of the season. They are a season-worst 22 games under .500 at 41-63.
“A lot of it is development and trying to get better in areas where you can improve,” Burger said of the focus moving forward. “Trying to stick to that and work as hard as we can and get as many wins and results as we can.”
Burger made an impact at the plate with the second multihomer game of his career.
He homered in back-to-back games for the sixth time this season. Burger is one of three players to homer in consecutive games six times this season, joining Shohei Ohtani (eight) and Pete Alonso (six).
Burger has 24 home runs, ranking fifth in the American League.
“When I get my pitch in the zone, it’s when I tend to do some damage,” Burger said. “That’s the foresight going into the last two months, trying to get my pitch as much as I can and not chasing as much.
“That’s the key for most power guys, get it in the zone and get a pitch you can do something with.”
With the Sox trailing 4-0, Burger led off the third with a home run to right field.
Yasmani Grandal singled to begin the fifth, and Burger followed with a home run to left-center on a first-pitch slider from Tanner Bibee to bring the Sox within one run.
Burger is tied for third in the majors with 16 home runs at home.
“I just love the energy and love the fans,” Burger said. “I feel like I see the ball really well here and it must be something to do with backgrounds at different stadiums and what not. I like the background here.”
Grifol said the Sox want to continue to see Burger elevate the ball and control the strike zone.
“There’s hit-ability there,” Grifol said. “We know the power-ability, but there is hit-ability in his tool box and we need to get that out of him. If anybody can do it, he can because his work ethic is off the charts. He’s going to work relentlessly to get that done. We’re going to see a lot of improvements from Jake Burger.”
Burger provided all the offense. The Guardians scored one run each in the seventh and eight to pull away. The Sox have allowed at least five runs in each of their last four games.
Starter Dylan Cease allowed four runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and two walks in 5 2/3 innings.
“They had a good approach and I wasn’t really getting my fastball over,” Cease said. “As soon as I got my fastball over it changed a little bit so the main thing was not commanding the fastball well enough.”
Josh Naylor had three RBIs while Steven Kwan had two hits and scored twice for the Guardians, who sent the Sox to their 14th loss in their last 18 games.
With trade rumors surrounding the team and Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez dealt to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, Cease stressed “being professional and taking the job seriously” during the last two months of the season.
“There isn’t really anything in Major League Baseball that isn’t meaningful,” Cease said. “Just being professional.”
