Kolby Allard entered this game with a 9-23 record and a 5.99 ERA for his career. With the White Sox throwing Dylan Cease against him, this was the game that looked like a win on paper.
That said, the ease of the victory could never be assumed, and paired with the stunning success against Spencer Strider on Saturday, the White Sox somehow managed to snap the Braves' 11-series winning streak.
The White Sox had Allard on the ropes from the get-go, and while he was able to dodge trouble with an inning-ending double play from Eloy Jiménez (who strained his groin on the effort), it caught up to him in the second. Jake Burger crushed his second homer in as many days to give the Sox a 2-0 lead, and then Andrew Benintendi, Tim Anderson and Luis Robert Jr. delivered two-out singles to double that margin. Allard then departed with a shoulder issue, adding injury to insult.
From that point on, Cease merely had to avoid squandering the lead. He briefly wobbled in the third, issuing two of three walks before an RBI single by Matt Olson, but the Sox answered with two runs on six consecutive positive plate appearances in the fourth.
Cease just needed to complete five innings to snap his streak of eight consecutive no-decisions, and while he threw 32 pitches in the fifth, he ultimately got the job done.
While he left a lot of room for the bullpen to cover, Pedro Grifol had the luxury of starting with the front end of his bullpen, and they didn't require the services of the high-leverage types. Reynaldo López filled the strike zone for a scoreless sixth, Aaron Bummer(!) threw two easy innings on jhust 28 pitches, and Jesse Scholtens worked around an "infield single" (a slow bouncer that Elvis Andrus should've handled) to close it out.
Robert Jr. turned it into a rout with a two-run homer that kept carrying, carrying, carrying over the wall to right-center in the sixth inning.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox outhit the Braves 14-5, including nine hits from the top three spots. Benintendi and Anderson each reached base three times, and Robert drove in four runs across three hits.
*The White Sox went 5-for-9 with runners in scoring position; the Braves were 1-for-5.
*Gavin Sheets took over for Jiménez in right and made a nice running catch in foul territory.
