After spending a lot of the road trip flirting with bunts, the White Sox closed out their Cleveland-Toronto swing with a 2019-style victory. The Sox struck out a lot at the plate, but they hit a couple homers, which, paired with a Lucas Giolito gem, was enough to secure a winning record on the seven-game jaunt.
Aaron Sanchez carved up the White Sox lineup for innings at a time, but the fourth wasn't one of them. Sanchez limited the Sox to only a Tim Anderson single through the first three innings, but he gave up a one-out single to Jose Abreu with one out in the fourth. Yonder Alonso followed by driving a 2-2 fastball over the right-center wall for a two-run shot and a 2-1 lead.
Alonso didn't kill the rally. James McCann and Charlie Tilson turned the next two pitches into line-drive singles to bring Anderson to the plate. Anderson got ahead 2-0, after which Sanchez evened the count. On the seventh pitch, Sanchez tried doubling up on a changeup, but he hung it, and Anderson crushed it over the wall in center to make it a 5-1 game.
That's where it stayed, partially because the White Sox struck out a whopping 17 times. Sanchez set down 11 via the K, along with six by the bullpen over the three innings it covered.
Lucas Giolito handled the bottom part of the line score, at least after an iffy opening.
Lucas Giolito wobbled in the first, as the Blue Jays watched his last outing and waited for changeups. Freddy Galvis poked one to center for a leadoff single, went to third after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. drove a fastball to right-center for a double, and scored two batters later when Rowdy Tellez ripped a changeup through the right side.
Giolito had to go to his slider to a little bit in order to get the Blue Jays off his scent, at least until his changeup execution improved. When he returned to an offspeed approach later in the game, it once again resumed being his best pitch.
After allowing three hits in the first, Giolito and the White Sox bullpen allowed just one hit the rest of the way. He struck out eight while allowing just one walk, and threw 69 of 105 pitches for strikes. He threw 22 sliders and nine curves after throwing just four breaking balls against Cleveland. Combine Giolito's finish along with 1-2-3 innings from Ryan Burr and Aaron Bummer, and White Sox pitchers retired the last 18 they faced.
Bullet points:
*Leury García made a fine running grab on the warning track, but he awkwardly slammed back-first into the scoreboard, and eventually left the game with lower back stiffness.
*Tilson moved to center after García exited and made a flopping catch in deep center. He bolted back to the warning track on a Justin Smoak line drive, only to realize it was of the sinking variety. He somehow compensated correctly.
*Anderson made an over-the-shoulder catch in shallow left center look easy, even it shouldn't have been his catch to make.
*Anderson was caught stealing for the first time when Danny Jansen thwarted Anderson's 13th attempt in the third inning. Anderson didn't think Galvis tagged him and Rick Renteria challenged the play, but the call stood even though Anderson was likely correct, as a definitive angle couldn't be found.
Record: 18-21 | Box score | Highlights
