Early indications are that White Sox hitters have embraced a more disciplined approach at the plate. But with five positional regulars on the injured list, the Sox rolled out a lineup that was one-third minor league free-agent signings, so it stood to reason that Luis Robert Jr. would need to get cracking.
The former All-Star homered to tie the game at 2 in the sixth, and opened the ninth by working a seven-pitch walk against Aroldis Chapman before stealing his league-leading sixth base, setting himself up to easily score the game-winner as Brooks Baldwin recognized a splitter out of the hand and walked it off with a lashed RBI single to left.
"It kind of blanked out a little bit, but probably should have touched second to get the slug up a little bit," Baldwin said of his thoughts in the moment. "I knew with me being one of the only righties on the bench, the possibility of facing a lefty coming out of the bullpen would be pretty high. So I just got in there, off the machine, off a little bit of a left-handed angle and and worked on my right side in the cages."
Up until a furious finish, all the White Sox offense had to show for their sound decisions was Chase Meidroth's sharp second-inning single, the only hit that left the infield against rookie Red Sox starter Richard Fitts through five innings.
But just as the AP writer in the front row was conjuring a story about Fitts' first career win, he left with an injury midway through the first batter of the sixth. As they always say in baseball, when God tweaks a shoulder, He also opens a window. Pressed into duty without notice and staked to a 2-2 count, Boston reliever Zack Kelly lost the second half of a nine-pitch battle with a leadoff walk to Miguel Vargas before splitting the plate with a 2-0 heater that Robert lifted into the Red Sox bullpen for a game-tying two-run shot.
"I am happy that even though I haven't been able to produce as I know I can with my offense at home plate, I've been able to help the team in different areas, like with speed or my defense," Robert said via interpreter, but his level of relief was clear. "I was close to 200 at-bats without a homer. I'm very happy I was able to hit that one."
Martín Pérez's changeup has largely been a wonder in the early weeks of the season, a previously underutilized secondary that has been a surprising source of whiffs for the 33-year-old veteran. I do not bring up him throwing it the plurality of the time Saturday afternoon to bury the pitch, but Pérez might wish that he had a little more.
Three straight cambios in the zone were whacked to lead off the fifth by Carlos (Omar's cousin) Narváez, Ceddanne Rafaela and old friend Romy Gonzalez to stake the Red Sox to a seemingly secure 2-0 advantage. The locations to Narváez and Rafaela deserved punishment and received them, with Omar's cousin clipping a 110 mph exit velocity on his leadoff single before he was tripled home by the center fielder. But Gonzalez pulling a low liner to left looked like someone hunting a strength they knew they would see eventually, due to the opposing starter's shaky control of other attack methods.
To fully represent the duality in walking the borderline of overusing his best offering, Pérez got Rafael Devers to roll over one more changeup for a double play before walking Alex Bregman for his fourth walk of the day and getting pulled an out shy of five innings. But such is the diminishing importance of starting pitchers that their meanderings get stashed at the bottom of the game story.
"We are competing," Pérez said. "We don’t give up. And I think we're just fighting to the last out, and we hit one of the best closers in the history of baseball."
Bullet points:
*Robert's sixth-inning blast ended a seven-game homerless streak for the White Sox, which is too long. They have 10 home runs on the season.
*Andrew Vaughn's stretch to corral a wide, rushed throw from Miguel Vargas to retire Gonzalez was upheld upon replay review in the seventh. MLB should return at least an inch to his height listing in response.
*30,423 was the announced paid attendance. Giveaways are effective promotional tools.
*Mike Vasil has now thrown a complete game shutout's worth of innings out of the bullpen after two good frames of relief on Saturday. He was fired up after blowing 95 mph by Rob Refsnyder to end the seventh.
*Jordan Leasure pitched for the first time since getting walked off in Detroit, and delivered five high-leverage outs with two strikeouts. He topped out at 97 mph. Good for him!
*The Minnesota Twins now have sole possession of last place in the AL Central.
