Bats wake up as White Sox end tough stretch of schedule with win over Toronto
Throughout much of the White Sox's sluggish second half of the season, the pitching staff has been picking up the offense.
Always honest, Sox hitting coach Frank Menechino identified a problem.
"We haven't been hitting the pitches we're supposed to hit, we've been chasing out of the zone," Menechino said. "When we're a good club and we're hitting good, we're hitting strikes, we're not chasing out of the zone and we're taking our walks. We haven't been doing that lately."
White Sox hitters flipped that script Thursday at Toronto, and the timing was perfect.
Holding a commanding 9-1 lead over the Blue Jays in the fifth inning, the Sox had to hang on for a 10-7 win after reliever Michael Kopech was tagged for 5 runs in the sixth.
After striking out 16 times in a 3-1 loss to the Jays on Wednesday night, the White Sox came out of the four-game series with a split on the strength of home runs by Ceasar Hernandez, Luis Robert, Jose Abreu and Eloy Jimenez.
They piled up 12 hits against Toronto starter Hyun Jin Ryu and five relief pitchers before heading back home for a weekend series against the Cubs.
"We wanted to go out there and get the win," said shortstop Tim Anderson, who was 3-for-5 with 2 RBI out of the leadoff spot. "It left a bitter taste in our mouth (Wednesday) night. They pitched a heck of a game last night. So I think it was mandatory that we wanted to go out and whoop them. And you see how we jumped out on them.
"It was mandatory to get a win."
Coming off the injured list after dealing with left-shoulder soreness, Carlos Rodon made his first start since Aug. 7 and gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and 1 walk over 5 innings while throwing 67 pitches.
"I felt pretty good today," Rodon said. "Obviously, some pitches I'd like to have back but made some good pitches. They really made it hard, they didn't strike out, they put the ball in play. It's a good lineup."
The White Sox get a break in the upcoming schedule with the Cubs, followed by the Pirates and Royals.
Wrapping a challenging stretch Thursday, the Sox went 7-7 vs. the Yankees, Athletics, Rays and Blue Jays.
"The last two weeks or so, we've played some really good teams," Craig Kimbrel said after pitching a perfect ninth inning and earning his first save with the White Sox. "Played some really close ballgames and I think we got a taste of what it's going to look like later in the year. We've got to figure out where's the difference and what we've got to do better.
"Getting to do that right now, understanding that we've been successful in certain areas and unsuccessful in others and how can we make that better, being able to do that at this point of the year is huge."