The 11th straight blog was ready, but then the Chicago White Sox pulled off one of the most improbable comeback wins of the season. After blowing an eighth-inning lead and going down 9-5 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, Andrew Vaughn capped off the comeback by hitting a monster, three-run home run to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 12-9.
Finally, after losing 10 games in a row, the White Sox won and they certainly picked a great way to do it.
Jake Burger doubled down the right field line to make it 9-6 and then Oscar Colas hit a sac fly that made it 9-7 in the ninth inning. However, the White Sox were down to their final out, but you have to give credit to these guys because they didn’t stop fighting.
Elvis Andrus, Lenyn Sosa and Adam Haseley were all down to their last strike in their at-bats, but all three delivered singles to keep that game alive. Haseley drove in the game-tying run, hitting a line drive single to center field that brought up Vaughn to the plate.
Vaughn himself was down to his last strike, going down in the count 1-2, before drawing it even and then unloading nearly two weeks worth of frustration on the 2-2 pitch.
Who knows if this will actually give the White Sox a jolt, but at least their miserable losing streak is over. Maybe it is a lost cause, but you can at least enjoy the few glimpses of fun in what has truly been one of the most maddening stretches in White Sox history.
This win doesn’t change the fact the White Sox are heading into the month of May with an 8-21 record, which is only one win better than the Kansas City Royals and only 2.5 games better than the Oakland A’s.
The White Sox begin a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. The Twins currently have a 3.5 game lead over the second place Cleveland Guardians and are nine games ahead of the White Sox in the American League Central Division.
At least the White Sox do have a few guys nearing a return that should help the product on the field. Tim Anderson and Hanser Alberto are expected to come back for the Twins series on Tuesday, while third baseman Yoan Moncada was getting in some ground ball work on Sunday.
It’s a bleak time for sure right now for White Sox fans, but who knows, crazier things have happened. Who would’ve thought that they would actually come back in the ninth inning on Sunday after melting down late in the game again. It’s not likely, but at least these dudes will finally feel some sense of relief after breaking the losing streak.
It was also good to see that Pedro Grifol didn’t just let Luis Robert Jr. back in the lineup on Sunday. He was kept on the bench after not running out a ground ball in the first inning on Saturday and then said he was protecting himself from injury because he had a tight hamstring, although Robert Jr. also said he didn’t tell anyone on the coaching staff about it.
