When watching Tim Anderson flick Miguel Castro's hanging slider out to right field to quell Yankee Stadium, I couldn't help but think of a random, obscure moment from the dusty corners of my memory, when Anderson walked off the Yankees with a homer on a similar swing in just about the same direction in the Field of Dreams Game last August.
I'm guessing you haven't seen it. I'm surprised there's even a clip of it online.
The stage on Sunday night wasn't nearly as grand, but even if you dismiss the gravity of Yankee Stadium as a media creation, it was still a national audience on Sunday Night Baseball and ESPN, and Anderson had been a national story due to Josh Donaldson's lizard brain.
Anderson delivered with his eighth three-hit night of the year, including that opposite-field shot that sent Yankee fans trudging up the aisles.
This is the same Anderson who is a staggering 16-for-33 in his seven career postseason games. In the small sample of games he's played on elevated stages, he's risen to the occasion just about every time.
The White Sox also rose up behind him, literally in the case of Yasmani Grandal getting in Donaldson's ear at home plate, and Liam Hendriks the day after.
Donaldson had no such defenders in the Yankees clubhouse, at least that I can see. I thought Aaron Boone's handling of it was a 70th percentile outcome, because while he delayed his initial reaction and ultimate offered Donaldson a little too much credulity, he didn't condone it.
"Josh has been very forthcoming with the history of it and the context of it," Boone said ahead of Sunday's game. "So I don't believe there was any malicious intent in that regard. But you know, this is — just in my opinion — somewhere he should not be going.”
It's a low bar to clear, but you have to adjust for what a manager thinks his responsibility is. It's easy for Tony La Russa to issue the strongest possible objection from the other clubhouse, but if another La Russa were managing the Yankees, you'd probably see a combined 308 years of fists flying at home plate.
Anderson provided a helluva conclusion to the toughest part of the White Sox's schedule to date. They just wrapped up 17 games over 17 days spanning five series against four teams, three of whom should be taken seriously. The Sox went 3-1-1 in those series and 10-7 overall.
Go back a little further, and the Sox are 14-8 since that ugly 1-10 stretch at the end of April. They're neither a 103-win team nor a 147-loss team, but they're probably closer to the former.
There's an urge to say that such a series, such an incident, and such a response to the incident could galvanize a team. I might be inclined to agree had the team looked drastically different on the field. As it played out, the White Sox needed just enough offense just in time in order to sweat out a couple wins, so they look largely like the team they had been. They stopped playing the brand of terrible defense that plagued them in April, and that might be what ultimately decides whether they disappoint.
But even if the doubleheader sweep after the Donaldson dust-up doesn't quite hold water as The Thing That Made Them Winners, it could have just as easily been The Thing That Threw Them Off. Instead, they responded vigorously without losing sense of priorities, and they're done with the Yankees and Donaldson for the rest of the season (unless Donaldson gets dealt again), so it looks like a passed test from here.
Whether offense or defense, Anderson is doing the driving on both sides of the ball. His OBP has reached. 400 thanks to his usual blend of hit tool and speed, along with a drastic reduction in his strikeout rate (11 percent, down from 21.6 last year). His defensive metrics are still in the red, but they're trending upward. He's avoided errors in 21 of his last 22 games, and he's starting to populate the highlight reel again.
He can't do it all himself, but he's trying to lead where the White Sox need to go on the field. The bats may be slow to follow him, but if the reaction to Donaldson is any indication, at least they're paying attention in the correct direction.
