White Sox eke out another victory
Yes, it’s true. In major-league baseball, any team can win or lose on any given day. It’s a long season, and teams get hot and teams get cold.
Blah, blah, blah.
In reality, nearly two months of baseball have revealed the White Sox are not a cream-of-the-crop club.
But the Sox (23-24) are in the midst of seven straight games against the National League’s two worst teams — the Marlins and the Cubs.
Now is as good of a time as any to reach the .500 mark and climb over into winning territory.
It hasn’t been pretty, but the White Sox are off to a good start after beating Miami (13-36) for the second straight night with a walk-off hit.
Jeff Keppinger’s RBI single in the 11th inning capped Friday’s 4-3 win over a Marlins team that has some serious offensive issues.
On Saturday night, it was Conor Gillaspie’s turn in a 2-1 decision.
With the game tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth after Derek Dietrich homered to end Jake Peavy’s shutout bid in the top of the inning, Dewayne Wise led off with a double and Gillaspie followed with a slap single to left field to end it.
“Listen, this is the big leagues and I can promise you this, it’s not easy to win a big-league game and you just saw it tonight,” Peavy (6-2) said after scattering 6 hits and pitching his first complete game of the season. “I know they (Marlins) haven’t had a lot of success so far. I was very impressed with the at-bats I watched.”
The Sox’ bats weren’t able to do much against Miami starter Ricky Nolasco, so Alexei Ramirez’s RBI double in the third inning was all the support Peavy had to work with.
But the White Sox came alive against reliever Ryan Webb in the ninth.
Wise got it started with the double, but he was planning on holding at third base when Gillaspie singled in front of Miami left fielder Juan Pierre.
Then again, Pierre played for the Sox in 2010-11, and he has one of the weakest throwing arms in baseball.
Give credit to White Sox third-base coach Joe McEwing for obviously knowing about Pierre’s defensive deficiency.
“Actually, when the ball was hit I kind of hesitated a little bit,” said Wise, who came on in the top of the ninth as a defensive replacement. “By doing that, I wasn’t sure (McEwing) was going to send me. But I looked up and he was waving his arms so I had to go right there.”
It was a wise decision, and Wise easily scored.
“Pierre doesn’t throw that well out there in left,” Wise said. “Nobody wants to play extra innings. It was good I was able to lead off with a basehit, and Conor has been doing what he has been doing all year. He came up with a big hit and now we can go home.”