It’s not often you get saved by the Bell twice in a few minutes, but it happened to Mike Vasil and White Sox this afternoon and allowed them to come from slightly behind to win. The third win of the spring wasn’t as definitive as the first two, and was as much a result of Milwaukee’s ineptitude as the White Sox’s successes, but winning games that the other team tries to throw at you is always a good idea.
The Brewers, with most of their regulars playing the other half of a split-squad day against Kansas City, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning – but it should have been much more, as Vasil’s wildness loaded the bases with no one out. He then struck out on pitches all the way up the middle and induced a popup on his 26th pitch of the inning before giving way to Luke Bell, who drove in a run on an HBP but then ended the threat on a force out.
This being the Cactus League, Vasil had to come back to start the second and got into trouble again, saved by Brewers runner Jon Adams. The hulking 6’4″, 210-pounder decided to test Korey Lee’s pop time, which was not a good idea. But Bell came back again to get Andrew Vaughn to fly away and finish That threat.
That pretty much set the pattern for Milwaukee halves of innings, as they had another steal breakout, a pinch-runner doubled on a liner to first base and, most importantly, an abysmal 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position. They did manage to add more runs, on an Akil Baddoo home run, but they spent most of the afternoon stranding runners on second and third.
Meanwhile, the Sox starters did virtually nothing, the only run in the first five innings coming on an Austin Hays double and Curtis Mead single in the second. Those were two of only three hits through the fifth.
But, as was the case in the first two Cactus League games, the White Sox thrived once it became a matter of “our NRIs are better than yours.” They took a 4-2 lead in the sixth, starting with a walk for Kyle Teel and hits by Dru Baker and Sam Antonacci. After Antonacci stole second base and advanced to third on a wild pitch (more gifts, see?), Drew Romo drove in the fourth run with an infield single, which was a really bad misplay.
The big bang of the day, however, came in the eighth, initiated by Tristan Peters:
A 400-foot shot isn’t bad for a Canadian who has never hit more than 15 home runs in a minor league season.
Meanwhile, on the pitching side, the Sox suffered a major mismatch, using Tyler Gilbert and Tanner McDougal and his 100 mph heater over the final three innings against Milwaukee’s Single-A hitters.
The undefeated record is on the line tomorrow afternoon against the Rockies. And the rest of the week there are only MLB.TV and WhiteSox.com games on TV.
#White #Sox #defeated #Brewers