Oscar Colás and Lenyn Sosa did not help this game, but they finished it with a flourish.
Pressed into action off an already short bench as the White Sox play through Tim Anderson's suspension, the rookies came up with the two biggest hits of the game. Colás won a lefty-lefty battle for a two-run double that put the Sox ahead in the eighth, and Lenyn Sosa followed with a three-run blast that capped off a seven-run eighth that put the game away.
The unlikely heroes helped the Sox kick out of a sweep and, at least temporarily, prevent the Rockies from slipping ahead of them in the leaguewide MLB standings.
Pedro Grifol had pinch-hit Colás against righty Jake Bird with the Sox trailing 5-2 with one out in the seventh. His first-pitch nubber couldn't score Gavin Sheets from third, but Zach Remillard picked him up with a double inside third base to make it a 5-3 game.
An inning later, Colás came to the plate under less favorable circumstances. The Sox loaded the bases with two singles around a walk, and Yoán Moncada scorched a two-run double off the right-field wall to tie the game. Bud Black called for lefty Justin Bruihl to face Gavin Sheets, and while Grifol used his last bench bat to hit find a favorable matchup, Carlos Pérez could only pop out to first.
Bruihl then intentionally walked Yasmani Grandal to load the bases to pick on Colás. He started Colás off with a slider down the middle, followed by a slider just off the plate. Colás committed to staying on it, and poked a fly ball to left-center. He hit it well enough to be a sac fly, but it found the perfect location, just out of the reach of a diving Nolan Jones, to score two runs and put the Sox ahead.
Remillard couldn't add insurance with his groundout to first off righty reliever Justin Lawrence, but since he picked up Colás the inning before, Sosa had his back. Lawrence tried to start him with a first-pitch breaking ball, and Sosa lofted it out to left for his third career homer.
That's how the Sox could cruise to the finish of a game -- and series -- that had utter embarrassment written all over it. They gave Dylan Cease a 2-0 lead entering the bottom of the third, only to watch Cease fail to make it out of the fifth. He gave up a solo shot to Charlie Blackmon, watched Remillard get eaten alive by a hop with two outs to score a run in the fourth, and then the wheels came off in the fifth.
Cease gave up a leadoff triple to Blackmon, and while Ezequiel Tovar scored him with a base hit to left field, Cease at least had the benefit of clear bases after Andrew Benintendi cut down Tovar at second base (Remillard kept the tag on Tovar as he lost contact with the bag). Ryan McMahon reopened a rally with a single, followed by a Jones walk, and while Cease struck out Elehuris Montero for the second out, he couldn't retire his nemesis, Harold Castro.
Castro entered the game 16-for-34 with three doubles, a triple and a homer against Cease lifetime, and all he did was bolster his average with a pair of singles. He set up the two-out "hit" off Remillard's person with a single in the fourth, and then he took advantage of a wild pitch to serve a single to center that scored a pair of runners and put the Rockies up 5-2.
The White Sox offense showed life early when Andrew Vaughn homered in the second, and Andrew Benintendi singled, took second on Vaughn's single, then stole third and scored when Austin Wynns' throw slipped off his fingers and floated into left field.
Then they went silent for three innings, and while losing their hottest hitter. Elvis Andrus was ejected from the dugout by home plate umpire Clint Vondrak in the sixth during a Luis Robert Jr. at-bat. Little did anybody know the Sox would still get that same production from the top spot, except with Sosa doing the damage.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox bullpen stepped up, with Bryan Shaw, Aaron Bummer and Gregory Santos each covering at least four outs. Bummer picked up the win, but Shaw calmed things down by going retiring all five batters he faced, three by strikeout.
*Remillard had a game to forget in the field. Besides the misplay that should've been called an error -- he didn't put himself in position to absorb the tricky hop -- he also lost a pop-up in the sun in the first inning. Fortunately, the runner on first had to freeze just off the bag, and Remillard had time to get the force at second.
*Vaughn and Benintendi each had three hits.
*The White Sox went 5-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
*Steve Stone left the game with stomach issues.
