Even though it took three wins to do it, the White Sox have a series victory against an AL Central opponent. On Sunday, they'll have a chance to mop the first-place Cleveland Guardians out of town.
The White Sox notched their fourth consecutive victory on Saturday night, even in the face of a seemingly lopsided Mike Clevinger-Triston McKenzie matchup.
McKenzie came into this one 3-0 with a 1.76 ERA against the White Sox in his last five starts, all of which the Guardians won. Tonight was no different, except for the part where the Guardians lost.
A two-run second inning turned out to be all the Sox needed. It started meekly, with Paul DeJong reaching on an infield single that McKenzie slowed down with a deflection. Nicky Lopez turned up the volume with a shot into the right-field corner. It probably would've been a double with runners on second and third had Will Brennan not batted it around by the side wall, but DeJong scored and Lopez took third. Rather than deny Lopez his first RBI on an error for the second straight game, the official scorer split the differnce: RBI double with an E-9 allowing him to get to third.
Martín Maldonado then interrupted all scoring discussions with a no-doubt RBI single to left for a 2-0 lead.
The White Sox offense dared the Guardians to retake the lead by going into sleep mode against McKenzie afterward. After seeing 47 pitches through the first three innings, they only saw 44 over the next 3⅔. The plan was to attack early: The White Sox put eight first pitches into play, and four more second pitches. That's how they notched both of their run-scoring hits, but it also allowed McKenzie to work deep into the game despite some big control issues early.
The White Sox pitched well enough to make the trade-off work, even though Pedro Grifol rested all his most trusted high-leverage relievers. Mike Clevinger dusted himself off after a disastrous debut to come within one out of the win. He allowed just one run -- a solo homer by Josh Naylor -- on four hits while striking out five. Pedro Grifol pulled him just after the halfway point, partially because Clevinger is still ramping up (he threw 72 pitches), and partially because the contact quality was getting more consistent. Clevinger's last six batters faced:
- 352-foot Naylor homer
- 89.9 mph ground-ball single through right side
- 103.5-mph groundout
- 88.4 mph, 319-foot flyout to right
- 95.3 mph, 366-foot flyout to right
- Broken-bat line drive single to center
Either way, the bullpen justified the early hook. Tim Hill earned the win by finishing the fifth, then setting down the Guardians in order in the sixth. After two scoreless innings from Jared Shuster, John Brebbia handled the ninth without issue for his first save as a White Sox, even bypassing the opportunity to surrender a meaningless José Ramírez homer for the third straight night after the Sox scored an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth.
The only damage was a two-out walk by Shuster in the eighth, but the severity was lessened because Bryan Ramos robbed Gabriel Arias of an infield single (or worse) with a fantastic play behind third base one batter before.
All in all, the four White Sox pitchers combined to allow just four hits and a walk, backed by errorless defense.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox drew 26,152 on quarter-zip night, and once again they pleased an apparel-boosted Saturday night crowd.
*Andrew Vaughn went 2-for-4, including a single off McKenzie after coming into this game 0-for-16 against him lifetime.
*John Schriffen dusted off "South Side, Stand Up!" for the first time in a while, which means you can blame him if the streak ends on Sunday.
