The Chicago White Sox, after blowing out the Kansas City Royals on Friday, faced a test Saturday. They passed with flying colors, with Jacob Gonzalez walking it off 2-1 in a pitcher’s duel. Chicago has now won the series against the Royals and will look to sweep on Sunday.
Here are three takeaways from the White Sox walk-off win.
Jacob Gonzalez Comes in the Clutch
We knew the hitting wasn’t gonna be great after scoring 22 runs the previous game. That’s just baseball! But the way the White Sox were able to grind out this win was impressive.
Royals starter Michael Wacha was dominant, and Chicago’s hitters had no answers for him. In 7.2 innings, Wacha gave up just one run.
After back-to-back-to-back base hits by Colson Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, and Braden Montgomery, the White Sox had the bases loaded with no outs to start the ninth inning.
After Junior Perez struck out looking with the bottom of the order coming up, it felt like the Sox would fail to walk it off. But Jacob Gonzalez came in the clutch.
After a huge 0-for-25 skid by the youngster, Gonzalez has been great the last few games. Wednesday, he had two hits, on Friday he had a home run and on Saturday he got the walk-off hit. This was the seventh White Sox player to hit a walk-off this season.
Over his last seven games, Gonzalez is slashing .263/.333/.474 with a home run.
However, in a 2-1 game, you have to commend the White Sox pitching.
Pitching Impresses
White Sox ace Davis Martin started this game and was brilliant, allowing no runs in 5.1 innings. When he was pulled at 87 pitches for left-hander Sean Newcomb, it was a bit of a weird decision. Newcomb would give up just one run in 1.2 innings.
But the real story of the game is Grant Taylor bouncing back after four consecutive outings allowing a run. While the June 24th game was an unearned run, it nonetheless cost Chicago the game.
In two innings, Taylor was electric. It was never a question about his stuff. But his command was amazing, striking out four batters and giving up absolutely nothing.
If he’s back to his old self, watch out league!
What To Expect Sunday
The White Sox will attempt to sweep the Royals on Sunday, with Anthony Kay on the mound. Kay had his best game of the season against Cleveland in his last start, pitching six shutout innings.
He will look to replicate that production against Luinder Avila, who has a 5.06 ERA in 42.2 innings.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.si.com ’
