If you were looking for the White Sox to end their five-game losing streak with a masterful, authoritative performance, the back half of this two-game set in Pittsburgh will leave you wanting.
The good news is style points don't count, a win's a win, and the White Sox will head home with a little less desperation.
Yasmani Grandal delivered his second big hit in as many games, and the White Sox bullpen made it hold up this time. Aaron Bummer was able to correct an ugly outing from the guy ahead of him, and Liam Hendriks pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to salvage a split with the Pirates. Dylan Cease once again bolstered his bumslaying credentials with 5⅔ innings to improve to 6-3, and 6-0 against teams .500 or worse.
Grandal once again played the hero against a starter left in one batter too long. After delivering a pinch-hit three-run shot with two outs against Tyler Anderson on Tuesday, he chased Chase De Jong from the game with a scorched two-out, two-run double in the fifth inning that broke a 2-2 tie.
It once again represented the last runs the White Sox scored, and Codi Heuer made hairy by giving up three consecutive one-out hits on a sinker. That left Tony La Russa to call for Aaron Bummer, who inherited the tying run second and the go-ahead run on first. This time they didn't advance, as Bummer induced a flyout from Colin Moran, and a groundout into the shift from Gregory Polanco to end the threat. Bummer then stayed in to record a 1-2-3 eighth with two strikeouts in a palate-cleanser of an outing.
Cease can say the same, especially since the two runs he allowed were thanks to his defense. He hit a snag in the third when he bobbled a hard bunt by De Jong. It should've been an easy 1-6-3 double play, but he fumbled the grounder, then panicked and rushed a throw wide of first.
Instead of two outs and nobody on, he had runners on second and third with nobody out. Both runs came home on a groundout and a single that tied the game at 2.
Cease dealt with traffic the rest of the way, but he didn't buckle. His biggest moment game in the fifth, when he neutralized a two-on, nobody-out rally by getting Bryan Reynolds to ground into a 6-3 double play. He came within one batter of completing the sixth, but when Kevin Newman singled with two outs, La Russa called for Ryan Burr, who survived a deep flyout to center from Michael Perez to close it out.
The White Sox had held a 2-0 lead thanks to a couple of unlikely sources. Leury García took De Jong deep for his first homer of the year with one out in the second. Luis González followed with his first career hit in the form of a double down the left-field line. Dylan Cease struck out, but Tim Anderson came through with two outs by belting a hanging curve to the left-center gap for the second run.
Bullet points:
*José Abreu went 0-for-4 with a walk and three strikeouts, and was the definition of "in between" on his swings.
*Cease went 0-for-3 with a strikeout, groundout and flyout at the plate, so he's a .500 career hitter now.
*La Russa called for two double switches, with Danny Mendick replacing Yoán Moncada in the latter one.
