Sox slug 5 homers for crucial head-to-head win

CLEVELAND -- The White Sox needed to win Thursday afternoon’s rescheduled contest at Progressive Field to maintain hope of catching the Guardians in the American League Central.

So they developed the perfect plan for success: Hit home runs, as in five home runs, leaving them just short of the club record of seven, accomplished twice in franchise history. All five came against rookie spot-starter Hunter Gaddis, who got the call with Triston McKenzie moved back to face Minnesota on Friday. With the power surge, the White Sox took home an 8-2 win over the Guardians in the series finale at Progressive Field, pulling within three games of first place.

“It was a big one. You see this is who we are,” White Sox acting manager Miguel Cairo said. “They get good at-bats, we hit a couple of homers and they went out there and they were aggressive. It’s good to see the guys come back from yesterday and put some big numbers in there.”

“They are the team that’s ahead of us,” said White Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada, through interpreter Billy Russo. “A win like this -- and the way we did it -- was a boost for our confidence.”

Those five long balls allowed by Gaddis equaled a single-game high by a Cleveland pitcher.

Gavin Sheets knocked out the first homer and probably the most important of the day, connecting on a 2-2 four-seamer in the second to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead. Sheets culminated a 10-pitch at-bat featuring five two-strike foul balls with the 365-foot blast.

After his homer broke up a 3-for-33 slump, Sheets joked about retrieving the baseball for the momentous road connection.

“Big step in the right direction,” Sheets said. “Made some adjustments in the cage, kind of took yesterday with that day off as a way to get a lot of work in and get ready for this week.

“Always good to be a part of that. Getting it started off and first one on the road. Miracles happen today. It was nice.”

Andrew Vaughn followed Sheets with his 16th, with Moncada going deep in the third. Yasmani Grandal delivered the team’s fourth home run in the fourth, and Elvis Andrus capped the home run barrage with a 409-foot drive in the fifth. The first 7 White Sox hits of the game all went for extra bases.

According to Elias, the last time the White Sox hit 5 homers in the first five innings was June 30, 2021 in a 13-3 victory vs. Minnesota. Vaughn, Grandal, Sheets, Brian Goodwin and Jose Abreu did the honors in that game.

“It feels good when you hit a lot of homers,” said Moncada, whose four-hit effort represented his third game with four or more hits this season. “It was fun in the dugout.”

“I’m going to tell you, it don’t matter who is on the mound,” Cairo said. “Our guys, they have been preparing. They’ve been doing their homework and they are ready to play. That’s something that they have been doing every day and they are going to continue.”

This outburst supported Lance Lynn (7-5), who dropped his ERA to 3.99 from its high point of 7.50 on July 16. In his last 11 starts, covering 67 2/3 innings, Lynn has yielded 49 hits and just seven walks against 78 strikeouts, pitching to a 2.13 ERA.

More of that mound dominance will be needed if the White Sox want to reach the playoffs. Cleveland not only has the division lead, but also holds the tiebreaker with a 9-7 edge over the White Sox and three to play starting Tuesday in Chicago. If there were a three-way tie in the AL Central, in which case the tiebreaker would be determined by combined head-to-head record, the Guardians currently sit at 18-12 against the White Sox and Twins, followed by the Chicago (13-16) and Minnesota (12-15). Those two teams play six times out of this season’s final nine games.

So, every win is important. But getting a head-to-head victory as the White Sox did Thursday has even greater meaning.

“Every game is a must win, but obviously against them even better,” Sheets said. “We wanted to come out and swing the bats early and give Lance the lead, and Lance threw the ball extremely well. Big win for us today.”

“Today was here, tomorrow is going to be Detroit,” Cairo said. “It was a win. It was just a game that we needed to do good, and we did.”