It's not clear how many at-bats will be available for Gavin Sheets in September, but he made his case for more playing time Wednesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Hours after being called up from Triple-A Charlotte, Sheets was batting eighth as the DH in the White Sox's lineup against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He went 2 for 3 with two homers and four RBIs, and the Sox beat the Pirates, 6-3.
Sheets started the scoring with a 3-run homer off Pittsburgh starter Max Kranick (1-3) in the bottom of the fourth inning. Then he finished the scoring with a solo homer off reliever Duane Underwood Jr. in the bottom of the eighth inning. Sheets now has eight home runs this season.
The Sox got five decent innings from starter Carlos Rodon (11-5), who struck out five and walked one, while allowing only one run on five hits.
Rodon threw 77 pitches in his second start back from the injured list. He didn't have his peak velocity -- he was throwing 95 mph, which is not too shabby, but we often see Rodon sit at 97 with his fastball. He didn't have his best slider, either, but hey, these are the last-place Pirates, and he had enough to get his job done.
Once again, the Sox bullpen was a little suspect. Aaron Bummer gave up a solo home run in the seventh inning, and the Pirates also scratched across a run in the eighth against the combination of Ryan Tepera and Liam Hendriks.
But, Hendriks stranded two runners to close out the eighth, then worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 31st save of the season. Ultimately, Hendriks needed only 18 pitches to record five outs, but it's kind of annoying the Sox are having so much trouble getting the eighth inning covered.
That's still an issue that must be sorted out over the next month.
The Sox are a season-high 22 games over .500 at 78-56.
No comments:
Post a Comment