Young White Sox starting to see results with 'clean baseball'

CINCINNATI -- Before the White Sox showed some true grit in a 5-1 win in 10 innings over the Cincinnati Reds at Great Amerian Ball Park on Tuesday night, assistant general manager Josh Barfield already knew the club was showing signs of maturing from last season.

“I think the quality of the baseball has been a lot better this year,” Barfield said. “We've been in a lot of games trying to find ways now and have done better of late, of trying to close out those games. We have opportunities to win, but just the quality of baseball, right? The starting pitching has really done a nice job of keeping us in games.”

Barfield was clairvoyant, because the White Sox found a way to close out a game Tuesday on the road when things turned against them late.

Chase Meidroth broke a tie in the top of the 10th inning with a two-out run-scoring single and Miguel Vargas followed with a three-run homer to left as the White Sox recovered from a game-tying homer from Elly De La Cruz in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Reds.

Vargas' homer, his third of the season, came on a 95 mph four-seam fastball letter-high. He didn’t miss the chance to provide some much-needed breathing room for a team that has endured its fair share of close losses this month.

“It means a lot to us,” Vargas said. “I think every baseball game and every win for us means a lot, and that's why we're trying to go out there and win baseball games every single day. Like today really makes us more proud and [helps us] trust more and more what we're doing. It's good to have a result like this.”

“That’s part of what it means to be a Major League player is you have to make adjustments,” White Sox skipper Will Venable said. “You have to continue to fight. Those guys have done a great job of doing that, and [they] continue to just put up quality at-bats. And even when it doesn't go their way, they continue to go out there and grind. And eventually, good things happen.”

The game was delayed one hour and 46 minutes at the start by rain, but the result Vargas and the White Sox received for their endurance test Tuesday made the wait more than worthwhile.

“It's a game of ups and downs, so it was huge,” Meidroth said. “When [they] tie it up in the ninth there, and you feel like you had that whole game, it's good to come back in the 10th and kind of regroup and put up [four runs], give the ball back to our pitching staff, which did an excellent job and shut it down. So it's awesome moving forward. We're going to move the page, get on to tomorrow and keep the momentum going.”

De La Cruz opened the bottom of the ninth by belting a Statcast-projected 435-foot homer to right off a sweeper from Steven Wilson, who blew a save for the second time in as many chances this season. Wilson (1-0) recovered to retire the next three batters to record the win.

But Meidroth singled home Brooks Baldwin with two outs in the 10th off Emilio Pagán (0-2), and then Vargas jumped on the first pitch from Pagán for a three-run homer that capped the four-run 10th.

Cam Booser struck out two in the 10th. The White Sox won for the third time in four games, their second such stretch this season.

The White Sox only managed to scratch across one run against Cincinnati lefty starter Andrew Abbott, a fourth-inning RBI single from Edgar Quero, who finished 3-for-4. Abbott finished six strong innings, striking out seven with zero walks and four hits allowed.

After a perfect first inning from opener Brandon Eisert, Jonathan Cannon delivered six scoreless innings, striking out six with zero walks and four scattered hits.

“We knew we were so close at the beginning of the year, like just one thing here, one thing there, but we were playing clean baseball. And so [we're] starting to see some of that clean baseball turn into wins, and then some timely hitting, some good pitching,” Cannon said. “We’ve won three out of four. So look to make it four out of five [on Wednesday].

“I think we really needed this one as a team, just to see extra innings, get two outs. We didn't score and then Chase comes up with a huge single, and then Vargas comes in and crushes one over the fence. And it was just like the nail in the coffin. That was a huge boost for us. A huge boost for our team.”