Reds centerfielder TJ Friedl yells as he stands at third base after hitting an RBI triple during the seventh inning against the White Sox on Saturday in Cincinnati. (Aaron Doster, AP)
Mike Clevinger knows what has been costing him in outings that haven’t gone his way.
“It’s kind of been a same theme of any of my bad outings I feel like this year, it’s been one inning that gets away from me,” the Chicago White Sox starter said.
That happened in the fifth inning Saturday when the Cincinnati Reds went ahead on a three-run homer from TJ Friedl. The Reds led the rest of the way, topping the Sox 5-3 in front of 25,543 at Great American Ball Park.
Clevinger allowed four runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.
“I’ve been through this before,” he said. “I know I’m really close to the outcomes I want and the pitches I want. It’s just the one inning each time it seems, a little mental lapse. It’s something that can definitely be corrected.”
Sox manager Pedro Grifol said Clevinger “threw the ball really well,” but noted that a one-out walk in the fifth to Jonathan India “really hurt him.” The walk, which was preceded by a Curt Casali single, gave the Reds runners on first and second with one out. Friedl followed with the home run, giving the Reds a 4-3 lead.
“I was trying to go up, pulled it down a little bit,” Clevinger said of the pitch that resulted in the homer.
The right-hander, who is 2-3 with a 4.84 ERA in seven starts, is “just trying to lock it in and keep that same mindset throughout the whole outing.”
The Sox built a 3-1 lead on a solo homer from Hanser Alberto in the second, an Andrew Benintendi RBI double in the third and a Seby Zavala solo homer in the fourth.
They chased Reds starter Nick Lodolo from the game in the fourth but had only two more hits in the final five innings against three Reds relievers. The first of those last hits came from Luis Robert Jr., a double in the seventh. Robert went 2-for-2 and was hit by a pitch twice.
The team’s final hit was a one-out single from Tim Anderson in the ninth. That brought the tying run to the plate, but Andrew Vaughn grounded into a game-ending double play.
“Overall a good game, not enough for us to pull it out,” Grifol said.
The Sox received tough news Saturday with outfielder/designated hitter Eloy Jiménez undergoing an appendectomy at Cincinnati’s Good Samaritan Hospital. The team said his recovery is expected to take four to six weeks.
It’s another test for the Sox, who have had to juggle a bevy of injuries.
“This is nothing new for this team to have to battle against some adversity,” Clevinger said. “I hope everything goes well with his procedure. I just want to see him back here. He changes our lineup, that’s for sure. But it’s next guy up around here.”
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Originally published at Tribune News Service