The White Sox looked dead in the water until Cleveland Guardians catcher Mike Zunino sparked a White Sox rally. The White Sox hope that spark will be enough for them to catch fire for the rest of the season.
“This isn’t over. It’s not over,” Gavin Sheets said after a convincing 8-3 victory. “We have too much talent. We got some big matchups these next two weeks, and we can still make a statement and have a great May and take it into June and see what happens. This isn’t over.”
A Strange Way To Spark A Rally
Through four innings, the White Sox had no answer for Guardians starting pitcher Shane Bieber. Tim Anderson led off the fifth inning with a single, only to see it quickly erased by an Andrew Vaughn double play. It marked the seventh hit for the White Sox with nothing to show for it.
Just when it looked like the inning was about to end, Luis Robert Jr. connected with the back of Mike Zunnio’s glove on a full count, which sent the glove flying off his hand and Robert to first base on catchers interference.
This is the type of blunder the White Sox are used to happening to them. Now that they were on the receiving end, they made sure to capitalize.
Yoan Moncada lined a single to right field. Guardians right fielder Will Brennan made a sliding effort to keep the ball in front of him. However, Robert, who was running before the pitch, saw Brennan on the ground, opening the door for him to score from first base on a single.
Five consecutive hits followed, and the White Sox would have a 6-0 lead when the dust settled.
Gavin Sheets launched a towering three-run homer to right-center field that traveled 413 feet. Jake Burger joined the fun by ripping a line drive over the right-field fence for his ninth home run of the season.
After holding the White Sox scoreless through 4 2/3 innings, Bieber got tagged for five earned runs and a career-high 12 hits allowed.
“That’s the crazy part about this game, right?” a victorious Lance Lynn said of the Guardians ace. “Something as weird as a catcher’s interference can spark an inning like that. But the guys just kept it rolling, kept the pressure on with two outs, and the next thing you know, he’s out of the game.
“Guys had a great game plan. They waited him out, and they finally made him pay when they got some runners on.”
Robert Chasing History
The following inning Andrew Vaughn drove hin his 13th RBI of the year with a double to left field that allowed Yoan Moncada to score. When the Guardians tried to make it interesting by cutting the lead to 7-3 in the eighth, the White Sox MVP was there.
Luis Robert connected on a fastball that left his bat at 108 mph and went 418 feet before landing in the left-center field bleachers. It marked his 12th home run of the season, which gives him the American League lead. It also extended his streak to four consecutive games with a home run, placing him one game shy of tying the franchise record. A.J. Pierzynski is the only White Sox player to homer in five straight, doing so from July 5th to August 30th back in 2012.
Lynn Produces Best Start Of The Season
While the White Sox bats stole the headlines, Lance Lynn produced a much-needed quality start. The 36-year-old entered the game with the highest ERA in the AL amongst qualified starters.
But the big right-hander went seven innings, only allowing three runs (one earned) on seven hits and seven strikeouts. Lynn, who has struggled with locating his pitches this season, did not issue any walks. It looked like the Lance Lynn of old.
“To the left-handers, he cut it. To the righties, he sank it in. He just had the fastball going two different directions and gave us a really tough time,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said.
Lynn threw 69 of his 97 pitches for strikes and was able to work the outer edges of the strike zone after leaving too many beach balls over the heart of the plate in his last couple of outings.
“We have to take it one game, one series at a time,” Lynn told reporters after the game. “But that’s how you’ve got to do it anyway, really. You start looking ahead for series or stretches or stuff like that, that’s usually when this game kicks you in the ass. Hopefully, we stay in that mindset: one series at a time, one game at a time.”
While the victory over a divison rival is nice, the reality is the White Sox are only 15-28 and still 13 games under .500. With fifteen of their next 18 games against division rivals; it feels like this is the Pedro Grifol’s squad’s last chance to salvage the season before some tough decisions have to be made.
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