Michael Kopech didn't have to do much to exceed his previous outing, when he lasted only two-thirds of an inning because he threw just 14 of 38 pitches for strikes.
Kopech still walked four batters this afternoon, but he did it over the course of five innings, and none of them hurt. Instead, the only run he allowed came courtesy of an Omar Narvaez homer, and the White Sox offense immediately answered with four runs to extinguish the tension and dodge the sweep at Citi Field.
Yasmani Grandal provided the biggest blow. The White Sox built a 2-0 lead over two innings against old friend José Quintana, who was making his Mets debut, but Quintana settled in to throw five innings. When Narvaez homered off Kopech to halve the lead, it allowed one to wonder whether the Sox had anything left in the tank, or whether they'd be clinging tenaciously to that one-run lead the rest of the way.
Drew Smith relieved Quintana to start the sixth, and Pete Alonso immediately opened the door by letting a Luis Robert Jr. two-hopper turn into a three-hopper that played him. Robert stole second, advanced to third on Eloy Jiménez's single to right, and then Jake Burger drew the first White Sox walk of the game to load the bases.
Grandal strode to the plate and fell behind 0-2 on unsuccessful swings, but with Smith tried to come inside on a fastball, Grandal beat him to the spot and rifled a drive to right field that short-hopped the wall to make it a 4-1 game. Better yet, the White Sox then proceeded to cash in the remaining two runs over their next three batters. Zach Remillard struck out, but Oscar Colás came through with a sac fly, and Elvis Andrus capped it off with a triple for the Sox's last run.
That made it easier to allow Kopech to start the sixth. He surrounded a one-out walk with a pair of flyouts, and Aaron Bummer retired McNeil to strand the runner.
That's how Kopech's successful afternoon came to a close. If we weren't on high alert for a shoulder issue, you'd look at the four walks and 49 of 89 pitches for strikes and consider it within Kopech's usual variance. His fastball averaged 95, but it got to where needed to be. He only allowed five hard-hit balls, and Tim Anderson turned one of them into a 6-4-3 double play by picking Tommy Pham's 109-mph hot shot on one hop.
Kopech picked up his first win since May 24, while Quintana took the loss in his inaugural start for the Mets, which was delayed by a spring rib injury. The Sox took a quick lead on three consecutive one-out singles in the first, and then manufactured a run in the second when Remillard doubled, advanced to third on Colas' groundout and scored on an Andrus sac fly.
Bullet points:
*Bummer threw another extended outing. He finished the sixth, pitched the entire seventh and then two batters into the eighth. Brandon Nimmo's leadoff double came around to score on Gregory Santos' watch for another run.
*Anderson backed up Andrew Benintendi after an 0-for-5 day at the top of the order by reaching base three times, although he was picked off.
