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| Todd Frazier |
The "dream" of a .500 season survives for another day. The White Sox (77-81) won their fifth consecutive game Wednesday night,
defeating the Tampa Bay Rays, 1-0.
This game featured two rain delays, and cold, wet, windy weather that knocked down its share of flyballs. However, Sox third baseman
Todd Frazier connected for a solo home run off Tampa Bay knuckleballer
Eddie Gamboa in the bottom of the seventh inning, and that provided the margin of victory.
The home run was the 40th of the season for Frazier, extending a career high, and he became the seventh player in Sox franchise history to reach 40 home runs in a single season. Here are the others:
Sox right-hander
Miguel Gonzalez (5-8) concluded a sneaky-good season with his best outing of the year Wednesday. He worked 8.1 scoreless innings, despite having to sit for 97 minutes because of a rain delay in the third inning. Gonzalez allowed just three hits, struck out five and walked nobody. He threw 71 of his 102 pitches for strikes, and that allowed him to get some quick outs in the pitcher-friendly conditions.
Gonzalez finishes his season with a 3.73 ERA. Fifteen of his 23 starts were quality. Like most of the Sox rotation, he pitched better than his record indicates, and I don't think anyone can complain about his performance this year.
His 102nd pitch Wednesday was a hanging slider that
Logan Forsythe hit for a single to left with one out in the top of the ninth. At that point, closer
David Robertson was summoned. He needed one pitch to record his 37th save in 44 chances, inducing
Kevin Kiermaier to hit into a game-ending double play.
