Rios hits White Sox's second straight winning HR

Posted April 23, 2010 11:00 pm

Scot Gregor

Is this just a trend, or is it going to be a trait?

For the second straight game, the White Sox refused to die after falling behind late it the game and wound up winning on a home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Considering they showed little or no fight over the first 16 games of the season, the Sox are obviously encouraged by Alex Rios' 2-run bomb on Saturday that produced a 5-4 win at U.S. Cellular Field.

The clutch home run off Mariners closer David Aardsma came on the heels of Andruw Jones' game-winning solo shot Friday night.

"It was pretty good to come back," Rios said after connecting on a high 1-1 fastball. "Those games when you come back, they are pretty important games. At the end you are going to say pretty important. But it was a good feeling to come back and win the game."

It was also a very rare feat for the White Sox to win consecutive games on walk-off home runs. They had never done it at U.S. Cellular Field and, according to Elias Sports Bureau, they last hit back-to-back homers to win games on July 25, 1967, when they swept a doubleheader from Cleveland.

"You would rather win a laugher 8-2," said Paul Konerko, who got the rally started with a one-out homer off Aardsma. "But after you win it brings the team together more so you take it and run with it."

Manager Ozzie Guillen wasn't in the dugout when Rios hit the game-winner. In the top of the ninth, the Mariners snapped a 2-2 tie after rallying against Sox closer Bobby Jenks with two outs.

With runners on first and second, Casey Kotchman lined a ball down the right-field line that scored Jose Lopez and supposedly left pinch-runner Jack Wilson at third base.

A fan leaned over the railing down the line and and grabbed Kotchman's ground-rule double before tossing it back on the field. Third-base umpire Fieldin Culbreth ruled Wilson would have scored regardless, so he sent him home to put Seattle in front 4-2.

Guillen argued the call and was ejected.

"(Culbreth) might have got it right, he might not, but the confusion I had was it was like he had Superman's eyes," Guillen said. "The ball was in the corner and all of the sudden he was watching the runner and the ball, that's pretty good. Wrong or right, that was my argument."

In the end, it didn't matter.

"You can see we are battling," Rios said. "These games are pretty important. We know we can do good out there and we never quit. In the ninth inning, when they scored, we were like, 'We gotta go, we gotta go.' "

p class="factboxtext12col">Scot Gregor's game tracker

White Sox 5, Mariners 4

Deep thoughts: After hitting 4 home runs in Friday night's 7-6 win over Seattle, including Andruw Jones' game-winner in the ninth inning, the Sox hit 2 more Saturday. Alex Rios' 2-run shot with two outs in the ninth was the difference.

Deserved better: White Sox starter Freddy Garcia didn't factor in the decision after pitching 7 innings and allowing 2 runs on 2 hits. Garcia retired 18 of the first 19 hitters he faced.

Here's a first: Even if they fail to sweep the Mariners today, the Sox finally won their first series of the season.