Brian Goodwin gets four hits including homer, Lucas Giolito strikes out 9 as Sox improve to 6-0 over Orioles with 8-3 victory
BALTIMORE — There’s no shame in beating up on the bottom feeders.
That’s what good teams are supposed to do. That’s what the White Sox are doing.
Their 8-3 victory over the Orioles Saturday put the American League Central leaders in position for a weekend sweep of the AL East’s last place team. A win Sunday would give the Sox a 6-3 road trip against the Tigers, Twins and Orioles, all losing teams. It would give them a 54-35 record at the All-Star break.
The Sox are 6-0 against the Orioles (28-60) and 31-14 against teams under .500. They’re 21-21 against teams at or above .500.
The formula is working. Their biggest leads in franchise history at the All-Star break were 10 1⁄2 games over the Indians in 2000 with a 55-32 record and nine games over the Twins in 2005 with a 57-29 mark. They entered Saturday with a 7 1⁄2 game lead over the Indians.
Brian Goodwin, a minor league free agent picked up off the Pirates reject pile in early May after Luis Robert went down with a serious hip injury, batted cleanup in Tony La Russa’s pieced together lineup and had four hits, including his fourth homer. Goodwin drove in three runs.
Tim Anderson, celebrating his All-Star Game selection, doubled in a run, and Yoan Moncada doubled home Anderson and Zack Collins in a three-run third.
Leury Garcia, 7-for-15 in his last three games, doubled twice and notched his 38th RBI.
Lucas Giolito (7-6, 4.15 ERA) allowed two runs over 5 1⁄3 innings, walking two in the sixth to fall short of his eighth quality start in his last 10. In his first five innings, Giolito threw his fastball, changeup and slider for swings and misses did not allow a walk a batter.
Closer Liam Hendriks cleaned up a messy eighth inning for Jose Ruiz, finishing the eighth with a strikeout with the bases full and striking out two in a perfect ninth for his 23rd save.
After the All-Star break, the Sox will be tested by the AL West leading Astros, who outscored the Sox 27-8 in a four-game sweep in Houston in mid June. The Sox host the Astros for three games next weekend coming out of the break.
“We’re going to have to beat the good teams,” former Astro Dallas Keuchel said after beating the Orioles Friday night. “We’re doing our job beating the teams we should beat. We’re very competitive now. We got our butts whupped in Houston, so I’d like to see what we’re made of to open the second half.”
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/36qwfky
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