Colson Montgomery summed up the White Sox’s approach in one clean line after Sunday’s 3-0 win over the Blue Jays: “Just be relentless.”
That was the tone all afternoon in Toronto. The Sox absorbed a dominant start from Trey Yesavage, stayed patient, and eventually cracked the game open with a pair of home runs to finish off a sweep-clinching win in the series finale. The result kept Chicago in first place and sent the club to Texas with momentum, now sitting a season-high six games over .500.
The headline may have gone to the bats at the end, but this one was built on pitching. Sean Burke was the anchor, and he kept the Blue Jays off balance from the jump.
He didn’t rack up a huge strikeout total for most of the outing, but he kept crossing hitters up, getting weak contact, and making Toronto put the ball in play. Burke allowed only four hard-hit balls, and three of them were turned into outs by White Sox gloves.
The average exit velocity against him was 84.7 mph, the kind of number a staff will happily take every time out.
Burke worked into the seventh inning and left after surrendering just his second hit of the day, and the first one that stayed in the infield. From there, the White Sox turned it over to a rested bullpen and leaned on Bryan Hudson and Grant Taylor to close the door.
The offense didn’t exactly come out swinging for the fences. Chicago had to scratch for its first run in the fourth, and it was as gritty as they come.
Munetaka Murakami walked, Miguel Vargas forced him out at second, then moved to third on Colson Montgomery’s single. Andrew Benintendi followed with a sac fly, making sure the inning didn’t go to waste after the Sox had put three runners on against Yesavage.
The real damage came in the sixth, and Colson Montgomery started it by refusing to chase the fastballs Yesavage kept trying to sneak by him. After laying off two 94 mph pitches inside and fouling off another, he jumped on a splitter that didn’t break enough and sent it 388 feet over the wall. It was the hardest-hit ball of the day, and it gave Chicago a bigger cushion.
Two batters later, Braden Montgomery delivered an even more impressive battle. Benintendi doubled to the opposite field to put a runner in scoring position, and Braden went to work on an eight-pitch at-bat that had everything: near whiffs, foul balls, and a lot of fight. He finally got a 95 mph fastball that leaked over the plate and lined it 107.8 mph to center, bringing Benintendi home and adding another run to the board.
The ninth brought a little stress, as Grant Taylor entered and Toronto immediately made things interesting. Ernie Clement singled to third, then Nathan Lukes dropped down a bunt single.
That set up Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was still looking for his first homer at Rogers Centre this year and had a chance to tie it with one swing. Taylor beat him inside, Guerrero got aggressive on the first pitch, and the result was a flare to center.
Braden Montgomery made a sliding catch and fired the ball back in, and two pitches later Taylor finished the job with a 6-4-3 double play from Kazuma Okamoto.
Colson Montgomery finished 2-for-4 with a run, a homer and an RBI. Braden Montgomery also went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Benintendi added a run, an RBI, a double, a walk and a sac fly. Hudson earned a hold, and Taylor picked up the save.
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The early-season attempt to change his arm slot never really took, and Hicks has since moved back toward what he was doing before. The result has been a steadier version of the right-hander, one that teammates and pitching coach Zach Bove have both viewed favorably even while his recent outings have come in lower-leverage spots, leaving the bigger test still ahead. [Read more 🡒]