The Chicago White Sox are scoring runs in bunches these days. It has allowed them to compete in big games and earn big wins. They finally earned that big win in a big game over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday. They were swept by them in Toronto earlier this year so this was big.
The White Sox started Lance Lynn on the mound for the second time this season. It is good to have him back. He had his typical game of throwing mostly fastball variations and it led to his success once again. He went 5.0 innings giving up just three runs on four hits.
He also walked two but had five strikeouts. The Blue Jays’ offense is elite so seeing him escape with just three earned was actually nice. Reynaldo Lopez and Kendall Graveman gave up no runs but Joe Kelly did give up a two-run home run in the 9th.
With the score at 8-7 now, Kelly was able to get the last outs and earn the save. It is a struggle without Liam Hendriks but they managed to get it done. That Jays team is lethal so none of this is too much of a surprise at this point. Luckily, the White Sox escaped.
Everyone did their job for the Chicago White Sox to earn their win on Monday.
The offense certainly did its job. Tim Anderson came back from injury and did his job and he set the tone early. He had a hit in his first at-bat and came around to score thanks to some big-time hitting from Andrew Vaughn. A 1-0 lead in the first inning is never a bad thing.
Speaking of Andrew Vaughn, he led the way from the two-spot. Led the way is actually an understatement as he had four hits in the ballgame. He chipped in two RBIs and scored twice as well. This is truly one of the best players on the team.
Going from Anderson to Vaughn to Luis Robert makes it even better. Robert was the third hitter on the team to hit safely twice. He also had two RBIs and scored one time. This lineup is as good at the top as any trio in the league right now.
Josh Harrison deserves an apology and so does Tony La Russa (for this one). It seemed wrong that Harrison was in the lineup over Danny Mendick. We knew Mendick wouldn’t be the shortstop when Anderson returned but he could have been the second baseman.
Harrison, however, must be hearing all the noise about his play as he was one of the most impactful players on the team. He had a couple of beautiful defensive plays in addition to a two-run home run in the second inning. We can only hope that he keeps it up.
As the former ace of the Minnesota Twins, there is no team in the league that Jose Berrios has faced more in his career than the Chicago White Sox. Luckily, the White Sox took advantage of that as they scored six of their eight runs (on nine hits)against him.
Berrios gave up three home runs and only recorded one strikeout. It wasn’t his best performance at all and the White Sox made it tough on him. We have to hope that they can keep up this scoring touch. They will try to take the series from Toronto on Tuesday with Dylan Cease on the mound.