Eloy Jimenez belted a home run in the fourth inning, and Dylan Cease and the Chicago White Sox bullpen made it hold up on Friday night in a 2-1 victory over the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas.
Jimenez’s home run was his sixth of the season, and it was the decisive hit of the night as the White Sox bounced back after losing the opener of the four-game series on Thursday. Jimenez finished with two of Chicago’s six hits.
Cease (12-4) yielded one run on two hits and three walks while striking out five in six innings.
The right-hander won his fifth consecutive start, and he allowed one earned run or none for the 13th straight outing. Cease has a 0.59 ERA in that span.
The Chicago bullpen stepped up, with Joe Kelly, Kendall Graveman and Liam Hendriks each tossing a shutout inning. Hendriks picked up his 22nd save in 25 attempts, breezing through a clean ninth inning with two strikeouts.
The Rangers were limited to three hits.
In the eighth inning, Texas threatened when Corey Seager singled off Graveman, Jonah Heim walked and Adolis Garcia was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with two outs. However, Leody Taveras grounded out to first, ending the inning.
Rangers starter Glenn Otto (4-8) took the loss despite posting a quality start. He gave up two runs on four hits with a walk and seven strikeouts in six innings.
With the score tied at 1 in the fourth, Jimenez hit a leadoff home run, a drive to center that gave the White Sox a one-run lead they didn’t relinquish.
The Rangers’ lone run came in the first inning, as Texas capitalized on back-to-back, two-out walks by Heim and Nathaniel Lowe. Garcia slapped an RBI single to right field, giving Texas the early advantage.
In the third inning, the White Sox pulled even at 1-1. Yasmani Grandal walked, moved to third on Josh Harrison’s single and came home on Seby Zavala’s sacrifice fly.
–Field Level Media
