After being outscored 32-15 by the New York Yankees while losing three of four during a May 12-15 home series, the Chicago White Sox reset and regrouped.
Chicago took two of three from the host Yankees this past weekend, capped by Sunday’s doubleheader sweep that saw White Sox pitching limit the Yankees to one run.
“It’s always good to take a series on the road,” Chicago left fielder Andrew Vaughn said, “especially here in the Bronx. … It just kind of shows that we have that in us, and we just got to keep going and keep building off of it.”
The White Sox will aim to do just that Tuesday as they begin a five-game homestand with a three-game set against the surging Boston Red Sox, who have won five in a row and nine of 12.
On Sunday, Boston’s Franchy Cordero punctuated a 6-1 homestand with a two-strike, game-ending grand slam to sink the Seattle Mariners 8-4 in 10 innings.
“I was going nuts,” teammate Christian Arroyo said. “Last year when Franchy got over here, he became really easy to root for. He’s a great teammate. He’s got a lot of tools, and you see it right there. He could leave the yard at any point. … That was a huge homestand for us.”
Highlights weren’t as easy to come by for Boston in its most recent encounter with the White Sox.
Chicago swept the host Red Sox in a three-game series from May 6-8 while allowing just five runs.
That was part of a five-game skid for the Red Sox at Fenway Park. The final loss of the Chicago series put Boston at nine games under .500, but the club since has rallied to get to three games under. After a trip to the Windy City, the Red Sox return home for seven games with struggling Baltimore and Cincinnati.
The White Sox went 5-3 on a trip to Kansas City and New York to climb above .500, and are set to start right-hander Dylan Cease (4-1, 3.09 ERA) against Boston righty Nick Pivetta (2-4, 4.22).
Cease, who took a no-decision on May 7 at Boston after pitching five innings of one-run, four-hit ball with eight strikeouts, has pitched to a 7.30 ERA in three career appearances against the Red Sox covering 12 1/3 innings.
Pivetta, who opposed Cease this month, also took a no-decision despite six innings of shutout ball with five hits and eight strikeouts. He is 0-0 with a 1.50 ERA in five career appearances against Chicago, including three starts.
Boston’s Trevor Story has five homers in the past four games.
For Chicago, Tim Anderson is batting .433 in his past seven games and helped fuel the club’s successful doubleheader in New York with a 5-for-9 day that included a three-run home run as part of a five-run, eighth-inning outburst in the nightcap.
Anderson leads the major leagues with 18 multi-hit games. That tally includes eight three-hit games, tied with Boston’s Xander Bogaerts for tops in MLB.
–Field Level Media