NEW YORK — For a brief moment, it appeared the Chicago White Sox had pulled off one of the strangest double plays of the year.
“I’ll be honest, I had absolutely no idea what happened,” Sox starter Jonathan Cannon said.
New York Mets left fielder Brandon Nimmo was on first base Tuesday night after a one-out single in the bottom of the first.
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Juan Soto hit a sinking liner to right-center. Sox center fielder Michael A. Taylor made a diving attempt, but the ball bounced into his glove.
Confusion took over on the bases as Taylor threw the ball to the infield.
Nimmo ran back to first, believing the ball was caught. Sox shortstop Chase Meidroth stepped on second and threw to first, where Miguel Vargas tagged Soto, who was on his way back to the bag after passing Nimmo.
“It looked like it hit the ground from where I was, but I wasn’t sure,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “And then, obviously, a little bit of a scramble there, so glad we were able to escape with an out. Great job by Michael cutting that ball off.”
An out call was made, but the Sox waited around to see if it would be one or an inning-ending double play.
“That was a weird play right there,” Vargas said.
The umpires gathered and, after a lengthy meeting, ruled Soto out for passing Nimmo.
“Someone, I think (third baseman Josh) Rojas, looked at the umpire and said, ‘They’re both out,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, they’re both out,’” Cannon said. “I had no idea what happened. I didn’t know if they ruled it a catch. And obviously the baserunners didn’t either. It was a very confusing play.
“Add that to the list of things I’ve never seen before.”
Nimmo remained at first and the inning continued. That was unfortunate for the Sox.
Pete Alonso followed with a two-run home run. Brett Baty singled and Jared Young hit another home run. The Sox never recovered after the four-run first, losing 6-4 in front of 34,944 at Citi Field. With the defeat, the Sox (17-38) fell to 21 games under .500 for the first time this season.
The Mets had five consecutive hits after the sequence with Soto.
“Was not expecting them to be as aggressive as they were 0-0 (counts),” Cannon said. “That’s a team that doesn’t swing at a ton of first pitches throughout the year, but they came out swinging. So they were able to adjust to me a little bit before I could adjust to them. And so once we were able to make that adjustment, we had a lot more success.”
Cannon allowed five runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings in his return to the rotation after being scratched Saturday because of lower back tightness.
“You definitely don’t prepare to have nine days between starts, but it’s one of those things you try to get settled in there in the first inning,” Cannon said. “And then to get ambushed like that definitely kind of stinks. But I thought we had a really good plan going into it. Didn’t throw a great pitch to Alonso there. He hit it out.
“Thought we threw a pretty good pitch to Young there, put a good swing on it. But then just got to continue to attack, attack, attack.”
Asked about his back, Cannon said: “It was good throughout the game. Just needed a couple days to calm down, but it wasn’t an issue today.”
Cannon struck out four and walked one in the 94-pitch outing.
“He’s one of our horses,” Venable said. “He’s going to pitch deep into games, he has all year. He’s just one of those guys that’s able to make adjustments and get back on track very quickly.”
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Cannon exited with two outs in the sixth and the Sox trailing 5-2.
Vargas brought the Sox within a run in the seventh with an RBI double. It was his second hit of the game after connecting for a two-run home run in the first.
But the Mets scored once in the eighth and held on to secure a series win. The Sox, who have lost eight of their nine road series this season, look to avoid getting swept Wednesday in a game that was moved up to 12:10 p.m. CT because of impending weather.