On the day after the no-hitter, the White Sox went back to slugging homers, and they got another strong start from Dallas Keuchel.
The result was a 10-3 victory over the Pirates Wednesday afternoon to complete a sweep of their two-game set at Guaranteed Rate Field. Edwin Encarnacion, Danny Mendick, Eloy Jimenez and Jose Abreu each homered for the Sox.
Abreu homered for the seventh time in five games and Jimenez, looking fine after tweaking his ankle in the celebration of Lucas Giolito’s no-hitter the night before, hit a three-run shot in the fifth inning, an opposite field poke that just cleared the fence in right.
Jimenez, who scored two runs, has 10 homers and 24 RBI and Abreu, the AL Player of the Week last week, has 12 homers and 30 RBI.
Encarnacion also doubled, and Yoan Moncada hit two doubles.
Keuchel gave up a single to Pirates leadoff man Cole Tucker in the first, quickly eliminating the possibility of following Giolito with a no-hitter with one of his own, but he pitched six innings of two-run ball, allowing four hits and three walks while striking out seven. Keuchel hasn’t had a bad start yet, and he’ll take a 2.70 ERA into his next one against the Twins Tuesday.
Opening the second half of the 60-game season, the Sox (19-12) are putting it together in all phases. Going in to Wednesday’s game, they led the majors with 19 defensive runs saved according to Sports Info Solutions, a radical change from last season when the they ranked in the bottom third in most defensive categories. Their starting pitchers’ ERA since July 29 is 2.60. And they’ve hit 59 home runs, which leads the American League.
“Guys want to keep it going,” Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “They don’t want to be the guy that falters. They want to be the guy that continues to have it moving forward. It happens in either case, whether it’s pitching or hitting.
“It’s anecdotal. I couldn’t give you a number or metric to measure it by, but my eyes tell me that is something you see happen and hopefully it will continue. You pitch, you catch the ball, timely hitting, all those things come together, but when you have a group of guys that are confident and willing to do a lot for each other, I think it’s a good mix. It’s a good pot of stew that’s got a great flavor.”
