What a night at Rate Field, and it finally ended with Edgar Quero doing it again.
Quero delivered his second walk-off hit of the season with a bloop single that brought home Tristan Peters, capping a 6-5 White Sox win in 12 innings over the Yankees. The finish was the payoff to a game that kept changing shape, then changing again, then somehow found one more twist before the home crowd could exhale.
For most of the night, the White Sox had no answer for Cam Schlittler. The Yankees starter was overpowering with his fastball, touching 100 mph at times, and through six innings he looked every bit like the pitcher who entered with a 1.08 ERA in road starts. That number barely budged after the White Sox finally cracked him in the seventh.
The inning began with Munetaka Murakami drawing a walk and Miguel Vargas getting hit by a pitch. Then Andrew Benintendi lined a double to score the White Sox’s first run against Schlittler, nudging his road ERA up to 1.10. Aaron Boone pulled him after 93 pitches, trusting the Yankees bullpen to finish the job.
Instead, the game swung hard toward Chicago.
Chase Meidroth opened the rally with a leadoff double, and then Sam Antonacci jumped on a 1-1 inside fastball from Paul Blackburn and sent it just deep enough to right field for a two-run homer. It was Antonacci’s eighth home run of the season, and it completely changed the mood.
The next pitch brought another jolt. Murakami turned on a low curveball from Blackburn and launched a solo homer, and suddenly a night that had looked flat and frustrating for the White Sox had turned electric.
Extra innings only added to the mess. Neither team could cash in during the 10th or 11th, though the Yankees briefly grabbed a 5-4 lead in the 11th on an Anthony Volpe sacrifice fly. That edge vanished almost immediately when Ali Sanchez tried to back pick Murakami at third and instead threw the ball into left field, letting Murakami score and tying the game at 5.
Jordan Hicks handled the 12th for the Yankees and found himself in trouble right away with the bases loaded. He overpowered Ben Rice with triple-digit fastballs before finishing him off with a low sweeper for a strikeout. Sanchez then had a chance to make up for his earlier mistake, but grounded out to Meidroth to keep the inning scoreless.
The White Sox had their own chances before Quero finally ended it. With a runner on third and one out, the offense kept rolling over ground balls to the left side.
Quero, Randal Grichuk, and Luisangel Acuna all came up empty before Quero got another shot and made it count. He dropped the bat head on a low changeup from Ryan Yarbrough and sent a blooper 227 feet with an exit velocity of 68.4 mph.
It might have been just a sac fly if Trent Grisham had caught it cleanly, but Grisham had to play it on a hop, and Peters slid home safely.
Before the comeback took over the story, Davis Martin had put together a grind of a start that was defined by one ugly inning. In the first, he was tagged for four runs, with Spencer Jones delivering the big blow on a three-run homer.
After that, Martin settled down and gave the White Sox a chance, allowing just two hits, no runs, and one walk while striking out five over his next five innings. He threw 106 pitches, and the effort kept Chicago close enough for the late rally to matter.
The win keeps Cleveland 1½ games back and gives the White Sox another game on Minnesota in the standings. More importantly for the players in the clubhouse, it gives them a little more breathing room after a night that took every bit of it.
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Murakami said he was shocked and worried for everyone affected, a reaction shaped by what he lived through during the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. Even then, the area was still working its way back, and now he is once again thinking about how he can help with recovery in the days ahead. [Read more 🡒]
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Amid that backdrop, Kyle Teels recovery remains a subplot worth watching. Will Venable said Teel is handling the process well and staying positive while he continues treatment, even as he works through it in a walking boot, a reminder that the White Sox are still waiting for one of their more intriguing young pieces to get back on the field. [Read more 🡒]