Trailing Cardinals 5-0 early, White Sox find a way to rally for 8-7 win
Before Friday night's game against the Cardinals, manager Pedro Grifol was still taking a positive outlook about a White Sox team came in a season-high 15 games under the .500 mark.
"It's been a challenge," Grifol said. "Faith has got me through it and it's going to continue to get me through it. I don't impose that upon anyone because I don't think that's the right thing to do, but I have it and it certainly helps me. We've still got a ton of games left. You just never know what can happen.
"We're going to continue to work hard and come out here and try to play good baseball every day and put ourselves in the position to win the game. That's the one thing I can actually hang my hat on, that every night we're in a baseball game. We've got to figure out ways to win those games."
Trailing St. Louis 5-0 in the third inning, the Sox weren't even close to being in the game. But they somehow figured out how to win it, 8-7 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
"I was really proud of our resilience tonight," said third baseman Jake Burger, who sparked the comeback with a 2-run double in the sixth inning after hitting a solo home run in the fifth. "We just kept plugging along, putting a lot of good at-bats together, drawing some walks in some big spots and handing it off to the next guy. It was really fun."
Jordan Montgomery, St. Louis' best starter, had to exit with one out in the fifth inning with a hamstring injury.
"He was mixing it up really well, locating his fastball," Burger said. "I hope he's OK. He was throwing the ball well and we were fortunate to put up some runs after that happened."
Making his first start in right field, Zach Remillard gave the White Sox a 6-5 lead with a 2-run single in the sixth inning.
After the Cardinals went ahead 7-6 on Nolan Arenado's second 2-run homer of the game, the Sox answered back again in the seventh and Remillard walked with the bases loaded to force in the go-ahead run.
Dylan Cease started for the White Sox and allowed 5 runs on 11 hits in 6 innings to go with 8 strikeouts.
Draft watch:
The White Sox have the 15th overall pick in the first round of Sunday's MLB draft and they should have plenty of options.
According to Mike Shirley, the Sox's amateur scouting director, the top six picks are pretty much set.
"From Pick 7 on, this thing can go multiple directions," Shirley said. "From Feb. 1 to today, it's a deep dive on multiple players. The span of those players, from No. 7 on, is a similar player. So makeup, performance, metrics, scout evaluations, got feels on players, we're using it all because that's what I think it takes to be successful today."
The Sox have drafted high school players the last two years. College position players are the strength of the draft, but will they make it three in a row Sunday?
"I love high school players today, and high school players are always going to be a priority for me," Shirley said. "I believe in them. I've been around them my whole life. The competition level they face from 14 years old on is real today. They see 95 (mph) today when they're 15, 16, 17 years old now, it's not something they're unaccustomed to."