Kimbrel looks like old self in getting first save with White Sox

Craig Kimbrel seemed to back in his comfort spot Thursday.

With White Sox closer Liam Hendriks unavailable after getting a five-out save while throwing 39 pitches Tuesday night, Kimbrel came out of the bullpen and retired the side on only six pitches.

Kimbrel earned his first save with the Sox since coming over from the Cubs in a July 30 trade.

The 33-year-old righty was 0-1 with a 5.79 in his first 10 games with the White Sox after going 2-3 with a 0.49 ERA and 23 saves in 39 games for the Cubs.

Before Thursday, Kimbrel was primarily pitching the eighth inning for the Sox. Did moving back to the ninth precipitate the success?

"It had nothing to do with what inning it was," Kimbrel said after the White Sox salvaged a split in the four-game series vs. the Blue Jays. "It had everything to do with what I've been working on the last couple of days and executing that. I was able to execute my pitches and got the job done."

Kimbrel said the big key was staying behind the baseball before letting it go.

"I've been getting in a bad habit of getting around the ball and yanking it," he said. "At times, if everything's perfect and the spin is great, I can throw a strike. But more times than not, it turns into a yank.

"But we noticed some things, worked on some things the last couple of days, just staying back and getting behind the ball, and it seemed like my ball was spinning like it was supposed to today."

Grandal update:

Yasmani Grandal was back in Class AAA Charlotte's lineup Thursday night, playing first base in his 11th minor-league rehab game.

Out since July 6 after having surgery to repair a torn tendon in his left knee, Grandal was ejected in the first inning after striking out.

Manager Tony La Russa expects Grandal to be back with the White Sox this weekend. When he returns the Sox will have three catchers, including Zack Collins and Seby Zavala. One of the latter might be headed to Charlotte.

"We can go with two catchers," La Russa said. "The answer is just to really, at the end of the day, see how much work (Grandal) had to put in, block a lot of balls, get on base a lot, see how he comes back the next day."

Breaking out:

Heading into Thursday's win over Toronto, new second baseman Cesar Hernandez was in a 2-for-15 slump.

"Watching Cesar from the other side and watching him now, he's putting pressure on himself, he's getting outside his body, his weight shift is getting forward," White Sox hitting coach Frank Menechino said.

"We've been working on that, doing some drills and we've been doing a steady routine to get him back, staying behind the ball, not doing too much and getting him off that front side which is causing him to miss a lot of fastballs and strike out more than he usually does."

The work paid off, as Hernandez went 2-for-4 with a home run. Acquired from the Indians in a July 29 trade, he also played a strong defensive game at second.

"Huge day for him," Sox shortstop Tim Anderson said. "He played both sides of the ball. That's one reason why we made that trade, to get him over here to do that."