Anderson helps White Sox stir up some home cooking
Losers of nine of 10 at home heading in Saturday night's game against the Athletics at Guaranteed Rate Rate Field, the White Sox were way overdue for a good showing.
They finally delivered one, although they had to hang on for a 3-2 win over Oakland.
The crowd of 27,026 was amped up from the first pitch, and the Sox came ready to play.
"They showed up tonight," Anderson said. "It's fun to play like that when they come out. It was a heck of a ballgame."
Maybe the key for the White Sox was the Anderson factor kicking back in.
The Sox seemed to play a lot of fun, competitive games in the first half, and Anderson was usually right in the middle of things.
"Timmy's an integral part to our lineup," catcher James McCann said. "Obviously, it's easy to say that with the kind of numbers that he's putting up right now, but just the type of energy that he brings, the type of person that he is, the passion that he brings for playing the game, he's one of those guys that you feed off of."
The White Sox hit a rut coming out of the all-star break when Anderson was still recovering from a high right ankle sprain, but the shortstop is back on his game and helping the Sox get things turned back around.
In the win over the A's, Anderson went 1-for-4 while extending his hitting streak to nine games. He's batting .436 over that stretch.
Anderson also made an impact on defense, being involved in 2 of the White Sox's 3 double plays. He showed off his arm strength after fielding a grounder up the middle and throwing to first base with Oakland threatening in the eighth inning.
Right fielder Jon Jay's running catch to end the seventh was also big.
"I'm just happy to be back in the lineup, to be able to bring what I have to the squad," said Anderson, who was out from June 26-July 28 with the injury. "I feel like I'm getting back to where I was. The legs feel good. Ankle feels good. I'm back up to full speed."
In another solid start, Reynaldo Lopez was happy having Anderson behind him.
Before the A's almost pulled the game out in the ninth inning with 2 unearned runs off closer Alex Colome, Lopez pitched 6⅓ scoreless innings. After a shaky first half, Lopez is 3-1 with a 2.13 ERA after the all-star break.
"I just changed my mindset," Lopez said through a translator. "Simplified my thoughts. I just try to execute my pitches, trust them and trust myself."