While 34,000 White Sox fans had little to cheer about leaving Friday night's 7-1 loss to the Astros, they came into the park with refreshed spirits thanks to Lance Lynn's two-year contract extension announced this morning.
The White Sox dugout figured out how to recirculate those good vibes. Lucas Giolito threw another complete-game gem against an Astros offense that had tormented the White Sox offense over the first five games of the season series. He was backed by a White Sox offense that posted more homers (five) than Houston had hits (three). The combination pleased a raucous crowd for what could be the most satisfying victory of the year, at least among regular-season games.
The White Sox needed a couple innings to get it going, but once they started against Jake Odorizzi and the Houston bullpen, they didn't stop. My initial plans were spoiled by Fox airing Yankees-Red Sox in my market instead of this game, so I had to play catch-up. Here are the bullet points, but feel free to add any details I might've missed while speeding pitch to pitch.
*Zack Collins and Tim Anderson went back-to-back on back-to-back pitches in the third inning with a pair of drives off Jake Odorizzi that barely cleared the wall. The subsequent runs would be more convincing.
*An inning later, Gavin Sheets came a couple feet from the White Sox's third opposite-field homer with one out, followed by Jake Burger doubling him home. Anderson muscled an opposite-field single to make it 4-0.
*A third consecutive two-run frame followed in the fifth, as Leury García's leadoff walk led to a two-run homer by Sheets on an 0-2 fastball.
*How about a fourth consecutive crooked number? The Sox scored three in the sixth when Tim Anderson greeted Joe Smith with a double, then advanced to third with some shift-exploiting baserunning on Yoán Moncada's infield single. Both trotted home on José Abreu's thunderous blast to left.
*Burger capped the scoring in the seventh with his first career homer on an Austin Pruitt two-seam fastball he redirected over the White Sox bullpen in left, 456 feet away from home plate at 115.2 mph.
*The only bummer was that Giolito couldn't preserve the shutout. He gave up his own cheap opposite-field homer, with Abraham Toro putting it into the first row in left field, but it's a lot easier to absorb when it's a solo shot while leading by 10.
*The Toro homer was the first hit Giolito allowed since the second batter of the first inning. He also allowed a single to Jose Altuve in the ninth, but he mitigated the damage of the other hits. He needed just 107 pitches to get through the game, relying mostly on a fastball the entire way. The 17 whiffs don't jump off the page, but he struck out eight, and most the contact as soft as well.
*Brian Goodwin made a fine running catch in front of a diving Billy Hamilton in right center.
*García was thrown out trying to take second on a fly ball in the second inning, which was the last offensive setback the Sox faced.
