The Chicago White Sox, fresh off their win against the Chicago Cubs the day before, played the San Diego Padres in a spring training game this Saturday afternoon. The teams played a tight one but the White Sox fell at the end by a final score of 6-5.
White Sox starting pitcher Mike Clevinger started the game, his first start of the spring, and faced 12 batters giving up four hits, including a home run, and allowing a run on a wild pitch. Clevinger had an ERA of 6.75 with four strikeouts.
He pitched a total of 2.2 innings before giving way to JB Olsen. Olsen pitched to one batter before Joe Kelly took over. Kelly pitched a total of one inning allowing one hit while striking out one. His ERA was 3.00.
Jake Diekman took over and then was relieved by John Parke. Parke was taken out and replaced by Franklin German. German was relieved by Lane Ramsey.
The Chicago White Sox are going well in spring training so far this year.
San Diego scored the first run of the game as Clevinger gave up a solo home run to catcher Austin Nola in the bottom of the second inning to put the Padres up 1 – 0.
The Padres would go up 2-0 in the third inning after Clevinger threw a wild pitch that got away from catcher Yasmani Grandal. Padres shortstop Tim Lopes scored from third and Lopes got to third by stealing second and third base.
The White Sox got their first hit in the fourth inning thanks to a single by Grandal. The next batter Jake Burger whacked a home run allowing him and Grandal to score. This tied it up 2 – 2 in the top of the fourth inning.
San Diego would take it to 4 – 2 after Diekman gave up a hit to Fernando Tatis Jr. that allowed two runners to score. That happened in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Still in the bottom of the fifth, Matt Carpenter hit a double which allowed another run to come home making it 5 – 2. The White Sox replaced Diekman and moved forward.
Thanks to a wild pitch by Padres’ pitcher Ryan Weathers, first baseman Andrew Vaughn managed to get to home making it 5 – 3 at the top of the 7th inning.
In the top of the 8th, Burger, hit his second home run to make it 5-4. Hopes were high that the White Sox could pull this one out and get a win.
The Padres would tack on one run in the bottom of the 8th to make it 6-4. The run came when Norweilian Cedeno hit a single which allowed Korrey Howell to score.
The White Sox would make things interesting by bringing the game to within one after outfielder Oscar Colas crushed a ball for a home run. That made it 6-5 but the White Sox could not rally and the game ended with a Chicago loss.
The White Sox recorded a total of seven hits on the day. The player of the game was easily Burger who had two home runs and played like a pro.
Burger has had a strong spring training so far. He deserves to be in the Majors when it’s all said and done.
The White Sox will be back at it against the Los Angeles Angels tomorrow.