The first week of baseball has brought a wealth of Sporcle possibilities. Lance Lynn's excellent start on Thursday brought to mind four different themes alone: home opener home runs, home opener pitchers, top game scores, and high-strikeout games. I would be remiss, however, to not celebrate one of the biggest bright spots to start the season: Yermin Mercedes and his five-hit effort against the Angels last week.
Of course, Mercedes have given us so much more than that in the days since, but I couldn't let the opportunity by. I was suprised to learn that this was the first five-hit game by a White Sox batter since 2017, and the first ever by a Sox batter manning the DH. In all, there have been 115 five-hit games by a White Sox batter in franchise history: how many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I've allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I've provided the date of the game, and the position of the player in question.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- The White Sox are 95-18-2 when a player has a five-hit game.
- The largest win from the games on this list is a 29-6 blowout of the Kansas City Athletics in 1955. As you may note from the Sporcle list, two players recorded five-hit games during that victory.
- The biggest loss came in 1918, when the team lost 11-5 against Detroit. That Sox team somehow managed to score just those 5 runs despite collecting 14 hits.
- White Sox pitching, meanwhile, have allowed 95 such instances, the most recent of which was Mike Trout's 5-5 night in 2018. (Box score, SM recap)
(Photo courtesy of White Sox)
All data from stathead.com
