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| Dylan Cease |
Unfortunately, you can't count on that as an offensive strength for the Sox anymore. Entering Tuesday's game against the Cleveland Guardians, the South Siders were 2-7 this season when facing a left-handed pitcher.
Make it 3-7.
It didn't look good early, but the Sox bats arrived in the late innings to beat Cleveland and lefty Logan Allen, 4-2.
Through four innings, the Sox managed only one hit and trailed, 1-0. But catcher Yasmani Grandal hit his fourth home run of the season -- on an 0-2 pitch, no less -- to tie the game at 1.
Cleveland retook the lead in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double by Josh Naylor, but the 2-1 advantage would be short-lived.
The first five Sox batters reached base against Allen in the top of the seventh. Andrew Vaughn reached on an infield single and advanced to third on a double by Andrew Benintendi.
Vaughn scored when Cleveland third baseman Jose Ramirez booted a grounder off Grandal's bat. Clint Frazier walked to loaded the bases, with still no outs, and Romy Gonzalez delivered a two-run double to put the Sox ahead, 4-2.
The line stopped moving there, however. Enyel De Los Santos relieved for Cleveland, and he struck out Tim Anderson, Jake Burger and Luis Robert Jr. in succession to strand runners on second and third.
That was a missed opportunity to blow the game wide open, but it turned out that was all the runs the Sox needed.
Dylan Cease (3-3) picked up his first win since April 10 with six innings of two-run ball. The Sox ace was once again lacking his swing-and-miss stuff, as he struck out only three. But he walked only two and limited the Guardians to five hits.
Keynan Middleton, Joe Kelly and Kendall Graveman each worked a scoreless inning of relief. Graveman -- who earned his fourth save of 2023 -- allowed a walk and a hit, but a well-timed double play kept the Guardians off the board.
The Sox are 20-30. The Guardians are 21-27.
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