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The Mets offense, quiet all too often this season, was especially silent against the hapless White Sox for most of Monday’s series opener.
Unable to buy a hit with runners in scoring position, they tied the game in the eighth on a Juan Soto sacrifice fly before Francisco Lindor won it in the bottom of the ninth with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to right.
The 2-1 victory was the fourth in five games for the Mets and it came against a White Sox team in the midst of another noncompetitive season, mired in last place in the AL Central and well on the way to a third straight 100-loss season.
Tyrone Taylor opened the inning with a double to left-center and Jeff McNeil was walked intentionally to bring up Luis Torrens, who entered in the ninth as a defensive replacement after Francisco Alvarez was removed for a pinch runner.
Torrens singled to left to load the bases for Lindor, who ended it.
Chicago entered the game just 5-21 on the road, but ex-Met Adrian Houser blanked them for six-plus innings in his second straight excellent outing with the White Sox. He had a 5.03 ERA with Triple-A Round Rock before he was released and signed a minor league deal with the White Sox.
Houser then went out and pitched six scoreless innings against Seattle last week in his White Sox debut.
He continued that success into Monday, as Houser allowed just one base runner until the sixth inning and retired 14 in a row after Brandon Nimmo’s double with one out in the first.
Lindor finally snapped the streak with a grounder through the right side of the infield with two outs in the sixth. Nimmo then struck out to end the inning.
Clay Holmes was solid again, limiting the White Sox to one run over 5 ²/₃ innings.
He gave up a run in the top of the fourth after a leadoff walk to Mike Tauchman was followed by a double to center by Miguel Vargas.
A poor jump by Taylor in center left him unable to run down Vargas’ shot.
With runners on second and third and no one out, Andrew Benintendi’s sacrifice fly to left knocked in Tauchman for the game’s first run.
The Mets got Vargas into a rundown when Luis Robert Jr. grounded to shortstop and the White Sox didn’t score again in the inning.
Holmes also pitched around a leadoff double by Edgar Quero in the fifth.
The right-hander ran into trouble again in the sixth.
After retiring the first two batters of the inning — the first courtesy of an excellent diving play by McNeil at second base — Holmes allowed an infield single by Benintendi that Pete Alonso couldn’t handle at first.
Robert also reached on an infield hit before Holmes walked Joshua Palacios to load the bases.
José Buttó entered to face Quero and got an inning-ending groundout to keep it a one-run game.
Buttó issued a one-out walk to Josh Rojas in the top of the seventh and was replaced by Huascar Brazobán.
Rojas swiped second and moved to third on a grounder to first, but Brazobán got Tauchman swinging to end the threat.
The Mets finally got more than one base runner in an inning against Houser in the seventh, when Soto led off with a walk and Alonso singled to right to end Houser’s afternoon.
He was replaced by left-hander Brandon Eisert.
Starling Marte, pinch hitting for Jared Young, grounded to shortstop, but beat the throw to first to avoid a double play.
With runners on the corners, Brett Baty hit a comebacker for the second out, moving Marte to second.
Tyrone Taylor walked to load the bases for McNeil, who was caught looking on a 1-2 slider.
Francisco Alvarez opened the bottom of the eighth with a single to left.
After Lindor whiffed, Nimmo singled to right, sending pinch runner Luisangel Acuña to third with one out.
Soto tied the game with a sacrifice fly to left, with Nimmo moving up to second.
Alonso was walked intentionally and Marte was hit by an 0-2 pitch to load the bases.
But Baty lined to right to keep the game tied.
