The Chicago White Sox were down to their final strike. After losing nine of their previous 12 games, Chicago trailed 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth at Busch Stadium, seemingly on the verge of extending its losing streak to five games.
Then Randal Grichuk delivered arguably the biggest swing of the season, flipping the deficit into a 6-5 win in an instant, after driving a 1-2 sinker from St. Louis Cardinals closer Riley O’Brien 358 feet into the right-field corner for his 13th home run of the season.
Bryan Hudson then pitched a perfect ninth to earn his eighth save, sealing a thrilling comeback win and giving the young White Sox a much-needed spark, with Miguel Vargas telling MLB.com Saturday’s game “is like the light at the end of the tunnel.”
While the White Sox may have lost Sunday in St. Louis, even Will Venable admitted the team was in need of a momentum shifter. With confidence inside the locker room, Grichuk’s heroics provided a much-needed boost.
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Two days later, that home run still loomed large. It proved to be the difference between the White Sox avoiding a sweep in St. Louis and, more importantly, maintaining a half-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians entering a pivotal AL Central showdown at Progressive Field.
It certainly wasn’t pretty. The White Sox made two errors, stranded nine baserunners and were held scoreless through five innings. But much like they have done all season, the South Siders found a way.
The go-ahead run in the sixth inning felt like something straight out of the Guardians’ playbook. Andrew Benintendi led off with a single that never left the infield, Tristan Peters battled through an 18-pitch at-bat to draw a walk, and Colson Montgomery followed with a fielder’s choice that brought home the game’s first run after Guardians first baseman Nathaniel Lowe threw the ball off Peters’ helmet as he raced toward second.
Then the floodgates opened. Chase Meidroth brought Peters home with a single, Grichuk loaded the bases with another base hit, and Kyle Teel capitalized with a two-run double. Grichuk was thrown out at the plate trying to score on the play, but Miguel Vargas made up for it eight pitches later, launching his 31st home run of the season to give the White Sox a much-needed 5-0 cushion.
The White Sox went on to win 7-3, extending their lead over Cleveland to 1.5 games and lowering their magic number to 11.
The 18-pitch battle between Peters and Guardians starter Gavin Williams was the fifth most pitches in a plate appearance since 1988, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, and was the longest plate appearance in the MLB this season.
Both Peters’ walk and Grichuk’s home run are emblematic of something the White Sox have proven all season: They are a team that will play all 27 outs and battle until the final pitch. That mentality has kept the White Sox afloat, even as they’ve slogged through a 5-8 stretch to begin September.
