With one swing of the bat, the White Sox chased out some of the bad vibes from Saturday's doubleheader.
With three more swings of the bat, the White Sox made history.
Yoán Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, José Abreu and Eloy Jiménez teamed up to hit four consecutive homers in the bottom of the fifth, which turned a potential nailbiter into an easy Sunday cruise. In the process, they dodged what could have been an embarrassing sweep and returned to .500.
Around those four swings, it could have been a more frustrating afternoon. The White Sox took a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning with Eloy Jiménez's RBI single scoring Tim Anderson, who singled to start the game. Dakota Hudson kept the ball and Sox offense grounded afterward,
Everything changed when Roel Ramirez entered the game in the fifth. Making his major league debut, Ramirez started his career with a strikeout, but the Sox backed him into a corner with a Nomar Mazara single, followed by a perfect hit-and-run with Danny Mendick. Then Mendick was caught stealing for no good reason with Tim Anderson at the plate, giving Ramirez an opening to wriggle off the hook.
But Ramirez couldn't locate his breaking ball, and the Sox seemed to recognize that. Tim Anderson drew a walk to restore runners on the corners, and Yoán Moncada lured Ramirez into the zone for three fastballs. He took one, fouled off another, but he didn't miss the third. Instead, he cranked it up the Goose Island Causeway for a three-run shot and a 4-0 lead that finally gave the Sox some breathing room.
Then two other Cubans homered. Yasmani Grandal waited for his fastball in the zone, and he sent the second pitch he saw the same way for a 5-0 lead. Up came José Abreu. Ramirez tried to flip the script with a get-me-over changeup on the first pitch, and Abreu ripped it over the wall in left for back-to-back-to-back homers.
And finally, Eloy Jiménez brought the first Roel to a close by crushing a hanging slider inside the left-field foul pole. Here's what that looked like:
It's just the 10th time in history that a team has hit four consecutive homers, and the second by the White Sox. They previously accomplished the feat on Aug. 14, 2008, and here's what that looked like.
When play resumed with Seth Elledge on the mound, the party ended. Edwin Encarnación showed up expecting fastballs or rollers, and instead he struck out on three curveballs to bring the inning to a merciful end. The Sox didn't threaten again.
They didn't need to. Dallas Keuchel only struck out one batter, but he received plenty of support from his defense, with Moncada showing more life in his activity at third, Mendick coming up with a couple of tricky plays at second, and Abreu cutting down a runner at home. Keuchel just couldn't quite close out the sixth after the long layoff, getting ahead of Matt Carpenter 0-2 before allowing a two-run single for the Cardinals' only runs.
Regardless, Keuchel did his job. He's given the Sox a chance to win in all five of his starts, and he now has three of them on his record.
Bullet points:
*Luis Robert is no longer the only White Sox with a stolen base attempt. Besides Mendick's hare-brained scheme, Anderson notched a successful steal in the first. Robert himself was cut down at second after reaching on a catcher interference.
*The White Sox went 2-for-3 with runners in scoring position.
