The White Sox captured their fifth home series victory in five tries, claiming a 4-3 walk-off victory on Sunday afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field to take two of three from the Reds. The winning run scored when Gordon Beckham singled home Avisail Garcia with the first run scored this season against Reds closer Aroldis Chapman, connecting on the fifth straight fastball at 100 mph or above. The winning rally started with two outs in the ninth against Chapman.
“Luckily I was able to get enough of it and get it over the infielder’s head and get it in the outfield,” Beckham said. “Better to be lucky than good sometimes.”
Cincinnati tied the game in the ninth with the first two runs scored off of closer David Robertson as a member of the White Sox. Zack Cozart’s double to left brought home pinch-runners Brennan Boesch and Kristopher Negron, after the two runners moved up a base on Geovany Soto’s passed ball. But the Reds could get no more despite having a runner on second with nobody out.
“I tried to get the pitch in, and I actually threw a great pitch. I have to tip my cap to him,” said Robertson of Cozart. “He did a great job of hitting. He got it out in the outfield and found a hole.”
Emilio Bonifacio’s single in the second off of Michael Lorenzen gave the White Sox an early 1-0 lead, but the Reds tied the game in the fourth on Devin Mesoraco’s two-out triple that eluded J.B. Shuck in center. The White Sox pushed across the go-ahead run in the seventh without a hit against Tony Cingrani.
Lorenzen yielded one run on seven hits over five innings for the Reds, striking out two and walking four. John Danks fanned four and walked three in his best start this season, covering seven innings and 118 pitches.
Bonifacio, Garcia and Tyler Flowers for the White Sox and Brandon Phillips, Brayan Pena, Cozart and Mesoraco for the Reds turned in multi-hit efforts.
“I put myself in a lot of bad situations. I didn’t feel right out there,” said Lorenzen, who put 11 base runners on in the game.
Click here to read more.
About Marion Online Sports
