Winning consecutive games to secure their first series win of the season counts as a milestone for the Chicago White Sox amid a franchise-worst start.
It won’t be the last highlight, players vow. Sunday afternoon will bring the chance to sweep the visiting Tampa Bay Rays, an accomplishment that would be an encouraging response on the heels of Chicago’s seven-game losing streak.
“Just got to keep going,” White Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi said. “It’s a long season. We’ve still got five months of baseball. … Not the best start, but we’re going to keep working to improve each day.”
Chicago lost 22 of its first 25 games entering the weekend and was coming off a winless, seven-game trip to Philadelphia and Minnesota in which it was shut out twice.
Suddenly, however, the attack is clicking. The White Sox scored a season-high nine runs Friday and kept hitting en route to Saturday’s 8-7 win in 10 innings.
Benintendi went 3-for-5 with two home runs and six RBIs on Saturday. His two-run shot in the 10th ended the game.
“It’s contagious,” Benintendi said. “You see one guy get going, he relays it to the next guy and passes the baton and it keeps going.”
Tampa Bay out-hit Chicago 11-10 on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough for the Rays to avoid their fifth loss in six games.
The Rays thought they might welcome Josh Lowe back to the lineup this weekend, but he experienced right hamstring tightness during a recent minor league rehab assignment and is set to undergo an MRI on Monday.
“I’m hopeful that the MRI comes back clean, and it’s just a couple days of rest and treatment and go from there,” Lowe said. “I didn’t want to do something to further put myself out for longer than I need to be. I know that [stinks] for this team right now, and they were expecting me to be back. But this is going to be the best-case scenario.”
On Sunday, Rays right-handed starter Zack Littell will look to rebound from Monday’s home loss to the Detroit Tigers, when his solid command proved to be both a blessing and a curse.
Although he matched a season high with seven strikeouts and didn’t issue a walk, Littell (1-1, 3.33 ERA) allowed six runs (five earned) and nine hits in six innings. He yielded two home runs.
“I think the scouting report’s out now that I’m going to be in the zone,” Littell said. “Definitely put some good swings on good pitches as well as some balls left over the middle of the zone that just can’t happen.”
Right-hander Erick Fedde will get the call for Chicago. Fedde (1-0, 2.73 ERA) struck out a career-high 11 in six innings Tuesday at Minnesota while scattering one run and three hits against zero walks.
A collapse from the relief corps, however, cost Fedde the opportunity to win his second straight start as the White Sox lost 6-5 on a walk-off.
Littell is 0-1 with a 9.75 ERA in five appearances against the White Sox, including two starts, with 10 strikeouts in 12 innings.
Fedde hasn’t faced Tampa Bay in his career.
–Field Level Media