CHICAGO -- The White Sox dug themselves into a hole early into the season, to the tune of an 8-21 record in March/April. But the team always believed it was better than those early struggles indicated.

Now, the White Sox are finally getting results.

Luis Robert Jr. came up clutch in the bottom of the ninth inning to walk off the Marlins, 2-1, at Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday, pushing Chicago to a 21-15 record since May 1.

“For any athlete, the best thing you can do is help your team to win a game, and to me, it was the most important thing,” Robert said through interpreter Billy Russo. “Of course, it made me feel very good.”

With the game tied, 1-1, in the ninth inning, Elvis Andrus singled to start the inning and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Tim Anderson promptly struck out before the Marlins opted to intentionally walk Andrew Benintendi. 

Then, Robert came up to the plate with a chance to play hero. The slugger was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts prior to that at-bat. But he put his previous plate appearances behind him and turned on a slider to send a single down the left-field line and walk it off on the South Side. 

Robert’s game-winning hit capped off the team’s sixth win in seven games. 

“It’s a lot easier to be positive when you’re winning,” starter Dylan Cease said. “Really, we’re just continuing to put in the work and following the process and staying even-keeled. When it wasn’t going our way, we were still putting in the work and the results weren’t going our way. Now we’re finally starting to see some more normal results.”

Robert’s clutch hit was nothing new for the slugging center fielder. He has been a bright spot for the White Sox offense all season and continues to be a big bat in their lineup. He’s slashing .265/.320/.517 with 14 home runs and 32 RBIs on the year.

But what manager Pedro Grifol admires most about Robert is his ability to track down balls easily in center field. He did so on Friday with many flyouts that looked routine, something he's been doing all season.

“Like I said, and I’ll repeat this over and over again, it doesn’t matter where we’re at or what venue we’re at, I think he’s the best center fielder in the game,” Grifol said. “That’s just my opinion. I see him every night. I don’t see others every night. I see our guy every night and it’s hard for me to think there’s somebody out there that’s better.”

The walk-off win was only possible thanks to Cease’s impressive start. 

After finishing as the American League Cy Young runner-up last season, Cease has not performed near that level in 2023. He gave up just 45 earned runs through 32 starts last season. This year, the right-hander allowed 35 earned runs across his first 13 starts. 

But on Friday, Cease showed glimpses of his Cy Young stuff. He gave up just one run on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts across six innings. It was his best start since May 13, when he threw six shutout innings against the Astros. 

“Felt good,” Cease said. “I don’t know if I’d say a bounce back, I think it’s just a good continuation of going in the right direction.”

Cease steamrolled Miami’s lineup through the first four innings before getting into some trouble in the fifth and sixth frames. 

He allowed a homer to Joey Wendle in the fifth on an inside slider, which was a home run in 17 of 30 ballparks. Then in the sixth, Cease had runners on second and third with one out but got out of it thanks to a nice play by Tim Anderson to get the lead runner, plus a popout. 

"Dylan did a great job today,” Grifol said. “He was phenomenal. Pounded the strike zone, and used all of his pitches. Had a really good game plan, him and [Yasmani Grandal]. [He] got in a little bit of trouble there in the sixth and pitched his way out of it. That's what No. 1s do, right?"

The White Sox are certainly trending in the right direction, and they like their chances going forward. On a night in which their stars showed out, despite going up against the top pitching prospect in baseball, Chicago eked out a win.

“We’ve been on a good stretch lately,” Cease said. “We’ve played really well in all facets of the game. When we play like that, we’re going to be very hard to beat.”