Salty is a champion ... again
The White Sox earned one of their best wins of the season Monday at Guaranteed Rate Field, where they rallied back against the mighty Astros with a four-run eighth inning to pull out a 4-2 victory after looking lifeless offensively for most of the game.
The biggest hit of the night came from left fielder Eloy Jimenez, who delivered a two-out, two-run double to tie it at 2-2. Jimenez isn’t fleet of foot and is also one of the worst defensive players in baseball, which made it logical for him to be pulled in favor of a pinch-runner and better defender after his clutch hit.
That’s indeed what happened as Adam Engel entered the game for Jimenez, but why did it happen? Perhaps only because a White Sox fan just outside the dugout was yelling at the top of his lungs at manager Tony La Russa to pinch-run for Jimenez. La Russa made the substitution just a moment before the next at-bat began, which makes you wonder if the fan really was the difference-maker.
Engel ended up scoring on Yoan Moncada’s go-ahead two-run single as the White Sox pulled within two games of the Guardians in the AL Central race.