LOS ANGELES – White Sox rookie manager Robin Ventura summoned closer Addison Reed in the ninth to protect a one-run lead – even though Jose Quintana had thrown only 77 pitches in eight shutout innings.
The move backfired miserably. Reed gave up the tying run on Juan Rivera’s sacrifice fly, and Matt Thornton gave up a two-out RBI single in the 10th to Dee Gordon as Chicago lost 2-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday in the rubber game of an interleague series between division leaders.
“It’s one of those things that happens,” Ventura said. “Q pitched great, but right there I wanted to go to the closer. This is what Reed does. Reed is going to be our closer tomorrow and it’s just the way it is.”
Reed gave up singles to pinch-hitter Bobby Abreu and Elian Herrera, putting runners at the corners with one out. Abreu scored on Rivera’s fly to right.
“I made a couple of bad pitches and they hit them,” said Reed, who hadn’t given up a run in his previous 13 appearances on the road. “The pitch to Abreu was supposed to be a high fastball out of the zone, but I didn’t get it high enough, and it got a little too much of the zone. Anytime you lose a game, it stinks, especially when the starting pitcher throws as well as Quintana did.”
Quintana gave up five hits, struck out six and walked none in his seventh big league start. The 23-year-old left-hander did not allow a runner past first base until Juan Uribe doubled with two outs in the fifth.
“It wasn’t like he was overpowering, but he definitely didn’t move it in the middle third of the plate,” Dodgers center fielder Tony Gwynn Jr. said. “He was on the corners all day, and was usually down in the zone and throwing a lot of strikes. When you get a pitcher like that, it’s going to be tough.”
Gwynn lined a one-out triple in the 10th under the glove of a diving Jordan Danks as he charged the ball in left field. Matt Treanor followed with a hard grounder to second baseman Gordon Beckham with the infield in, forcing Gwynn to stay put. Abreu was intentionally walked and Gordon lined a single to left against Thornton (2-5).
