The Erick Fedde Revenge Game was everything Erick Fedde hoped it could be.
Fedde threw seven scoreless innings against his former team, and his effort was backed by the Andrews. Andrew Vaughn hit a pair of homers -- a three-run shot off Mitchell Parker to wake up Guaranteed Rate Field in the third inning, and a solo shot for added insurance in the eighth.
That kept the tying run from coming to the plate in the ninth inning after Michael Kopech walked a couple of batters to make it interesting, and that's when Andrew Benintendi came into play, chasing down a Jesse Winker line drive toward the left-center gap for the final out.
That preserved the shutout that Fedde got most of the way there. He needed an efficient 99 pitches to complete seven innings, allowing just a double and two singles while striking out six.
Fedde created his biggest jam in the third, when he gave up a one-out single to Ildemaro Vargas, then hit him with a pickoff throw to give him 90 feet. Vargas advanced to third on a groundout, but CJ Abrams lined out to center to end the threat.
In the bottom of the inning, Vaughn gave him breathing room. As the old saying goes, "When Rafael Ortega reaches base on a hit, you absolutely have to capitalize on it," and Ortega, who came into the game 0-for-12 in his White Sox career, did his part with a bunt single for the first hit off Parker. Ortega then stole second on a strikeout, and while Nicky Lopez lined out, Tommy Pham kept the inning alive with a walk where ball four was a wild pitch, putting runners on the corners.
Vaughn took a curveball low, then swung over a splitter. Pham took off on the third pitch, perhaps to force the Nats into deciding their countermove with a runner on third. What Keiburt Ruiz would've chosen will forever remain a mystery, because Parker threw Vaughn a worse version of the same pitch -- a splitter that was borderline bottom of the zone, but over the heart of the plate. Vaughn was readier for it, and launched it out to right center for a 3-0 White Sox lead.
That's where the score remained until the eighth, when Rutledge threw Vaughn a 2-0 cookie and paid the price. 96 mph down the middle went out to left at 103 mph for a four-run lead. That erased the aftertaste from a couple of wasted chances, particularly Paul DeJong grounding into a 1-2-3 double play with the bases loaded and nobody out in the sixth inning.
Fedde allowed only two other hits the rest of the way -- a one-out double to Eddie Rosario in the fourth, and a two-out single to Trey Lipscomb. He threw strikes, and, in stark contrast to the first game, the White Sox played clean defense behind him, with DeJong's over-the-shoulder catch on a fly ball to not-shallow center to rob Winker of a cheap hit in the fourth a particular highlight.
The Nats only had two baserunners in an inning after Fedde left. They put two on with one out after a walk and bunt single against Jordan Leasure in the eighth, followed by a pair of one-out walks by Kopech in the ninth, including a goofy wild pitch when his spikes caught during his delivery. Benintendi's fine catch made it moot.
Bullet points:
*Fedde improved to 4-0 with a 2.60 ERA, which is giving some "Steve Carlton on the 1972 Phillies" vibes.
*Vaughn raised his OPS to an even .600 after his two homers and a walk.
*Martín Maldonado struck out all three times up, so his OPS is down to .321.
