Luis Robert Jr. challenged what would have been an inning-ending third strike.
The call was overturned, giving the New York Mets outfielder another shot and a 2-2 count in the third-inning at-bat against Chicago White Sox starter Luis Castillo.
Two pitches later, the former Sox hit a two-run home run.
“Good for him in that situation, he felt obligated to challenge the ball and good for him that he got me right after that,” Castillo said through an interpreter.
Robert homered again in the seventh, and the Mets topped the Sox 10-5 on Saturday in front of 30,705 at Rate Field.
“It feels good to hit homers against any team, to be honest with you,” Robert said through an interpreter to reporters covering the Mets. “I will say it did feel good to hit the home runs here just because it was a stadium that I played so many games in my whole career.”
Robert, who was traded from the Sox to the Mets in the offseason after six years with the club, went 2-for-5 with the two home runs and three RBIs.
“He got us good today,” Sox manager Will Venable said.
With the loss, the first-place Sox (67-62) lead the American League Central by 3½ games over the second-place Cleveland Guardians (64-66).
The Sox allowed five home runs Saturday, two by Castillo. The right-hander allowed four runs on eight hits with three strikeouts and one walk in 2 2/3 innings.
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“As an athlete we have good days and bad days, it was a bad day today,” Castillo said. “They were taking good at-bats. They were hitting a lot of foul balls. I was attacking the zone. The best part is that I’m feeling good.”
He exited after throwing 80 pitches.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t my day today,” Castillo said.
Bo Bichette hit a solo home run in the third inning to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. Robert extended the lead to 4-1 with the two-run blast against Castillo later in the inning. A walk and single followed, and Castillo was out of the game.
“He threw strikes, just wasn’t able to finish guys,” Venable said. “A lot of counts got ahead of guys, saw two strike counts, but they got full and ended up getting some hard damage, hard contact in there and some damage.”
The Sox pulled within 4-3 in the bottom of the third. The inning included a Tristan Peters solo home run, which occurred when Carson Benge ran face-first into the fence in right field and couldn’t hang onto the ball, which went out of his glove and trickled over the wall.
“It was funny because I thought it was a home run off the bat,” Peters said. “Then I saw he caught it and I was like, ‘Dang, I hit that one hard.’ Then I saw it go over the wall and I was pretty pumped.”
The training staff checked on Benge, who remained in the game and homered as part of a three-run fifth inning against reliever Tyler Schweitzer.
The Sox scored one run each in the fifth and sixth, cutting the deficit to 7-5. But they left the bases loaded in both innings. The Sox finished 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
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“Did a good job getting a lot of traffic and creating base runners, just didn’t get that big hit,” Venable said. “Colson (Montgomery) crushes that ball just foul (in the fifth with the bases loaded before striking out to end the inning). And (Andrew Benintendi had a) good swing with the bases loaded (lining out to left field to end the sixth).
“Good job creating the traffic but just didn’t get that big hit to score some runs.”
The Sox had nine hits and drew seven walks but left 11 runners on base.
“It’s (a) frustrating last few days,” Peters said. “We’ve been hitting some balls hard but right at people. Frustrating part of it. At the same time, I think we are in a good spot offensively.”
Robert provided some breathing room with his solo home run in the seventh against reliever Huascar Brazobán. Luis Torrens added a two-run blast in the ninth against Trevor Richards.
For Robert, it was his first multihomer game since Aug. 16, 2024, in Houston, when he played for the Sox.
“Really talented player that (if) you make mistakes to him, he’s going to hurt you,” Venable said.
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