Before kicking off the second half of the season, the White Sox held a team meeting on Friday. According to Mike Tauchman, the conversation centered around holding themselves accountable for certain things moving forward.
Whatever was said during the meeting seemed to work, as the White Sox offense erupted for 27 runs on 34 hits in a three-game series sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.
On Friday, the White Sox connected for 11 hits for 10 runs in a 10-1 win over the Pirates, powered by home runs from Edgar Quero and Luis Robert Jr., who finished with two hits and two RBIs. Every Chicago starter reached base at least once except Chase Meidroth, who went 0-for-5.
Meidroth bounced back Saturday, collecting one of the team’s 13 hits in a 10-4 victory. After falling behind 3-0 in the fourth, the offense came alive in the fifth with an RBI single from Lenyn Sosa and an RBI double by Josh Rojas.
The White Sox broke the game open in the sixth when Robert Jr. and Austin Slater each hit RBI singles, followed by a bases-clearing double from Mike Tauchman to make it 7-4. Meidroth added insurance with an RBI single later in the inning, and Sosa capped the scoring in the seventh with a two-run single.
The White Sox wasted no time jumping on the Pirates in the series finale on Sunday. Meidroth doubled on the second pitch of the game, Slater drew a four-pitch walk, and Miguel Vargas drove them in with a 411-foot three-run blast to left-center field.
Tauchman then made it back-to-back homers two pitches later, with a 429-foot homer that cleared PNC Park and landed in the Allegheny River. Tuachman is just the 52nd different player to reach the river, a feat that has only been accomplished 84 times in the stadium’s history.
But Tauchman wasn’t done putting his fingerprints on the series. In the top of the fifth, he connected for his 12th double of the year to score Vardas and Quero, and give the White Sox a 7-1 lead.
The White Sox would go on to win the game 7-2, capping off their first road series sweep since July 3rd, 2022.
“We talked coming out of the break that we have to make real changes in our approach to get to the fastball, and the guys responded and did a great job,” White Sox manager Will Venabable told reporters on Sunday.
While the offense received all the attention, the White Sox also received some solid pitching performances.
Jonathan Cannon set the tone for the second half on Friday by tossing seven innings of one-run ball, striking out two batters on five hits and no walks. Relievers Dan Altavilla and Tyler Alexander closed things out by each firing a scoreless inning.
The bullpen was the story on Saturday, with Tyler Gilbert, Steven Wilson, Brandon Eisert, Jordan Leasure, and Wikelman González combining for 4.2 scoreless innings after starter Adrian Houser was pulled in the fifth inning after allowing four runs (three earned) on ten hits. The five White Sox relievers combined to allow just three hits and struck out four.
On Sunday, Aaron Civale put together his best start in a White Sox uniform, allowing just one unearned run in six innings, while striking out six. Grant Taylor then came out of the bullpen in the seventh inning and proceeded to strike out the side.
“Good fight, good baseball, guys are playing together,” Civale said after Sunday’s 7-2 win. “Good defense, good pitching, aggressive out there. Good blocking behind the plate, good pitch calling, so it was just nonstop fight.”
