Benintendi, White Sox walk it off against the Rays in extras for 2nd straight win
CHICAGO — Two games into the Tommy Pham experience, the Chicago White Sox bats have woken up to the tune of 17 runs scored, with eight of them coming in a Saturday night walk-off victory against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Pham went 2-5 for the second consecutive day, while Andrew Benintendi broke out of his slump in a big way, going 3-5 with two home runs and six runs batted in, including the game-winning, two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the tenth inning.
“It was a really gutsy performance all the way around. These guys came to play today and they did a nice job,” said White Sox manager Pedro Grifol postgame. “It was good baseball. On the offensive side, Benintendi [had a] career day … He’s been feeling good.”
Game Recap
A back-and-forth affair with the bats turned into a late-game battle of the bullpens, with the Rays jumping on White Sox starting pitcher Jonathan Cannon early.
Tampa Bay shortstop Jose Caballero singled home a run in the second inning, before Richie Palacios ripped a two-run home run on a first-pitch changeup in the fourth to give the Rays an early 3-0 lead.
However, Chicago jumped right back into the ballgame during the next half-inning in what started a barrage of offense across the middle three innings of the game.
Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Vaughn reached base on back-to-back singles, before Andrew Benintendi hit a ball 405 feet into the right centerfield bleachers for a three-run home run that tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the fourth.
In the top of the fifth, Tampa Bay’s Austin Shenton hit his first career home run after Benintendi tied the game. It was an opposite field home run that carried out, thanks in part to the swirling winds that came to play at Guaranteed Rate Field Saturday night.
“He did,” Grifol said on if the wind helped Shenton’s home run travel over the fence. “But it’s a homer. A homer’s a homer.”
Cannon’s final line on the day was 5.0 innings pitched with four earned runs on eight hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
In the home-half of the fifth inning, Nicky Lopez hit a lead-off infield single before advancing to third on a sharp single from Tommy Pham that put runners on the corners with no outs.
Gavin Sheets hit a ground rule double down the left field line that re-tied the game, before Pham slide into home on a fielder’s choice ground ball to second base off the bat of Andrew Vaughn that gave the White Sox their first lead of the night.
Benintendi added an insurance run with his fourth run batted in of the night, an RBI-single up the middle to score Sheets that made the score 6-4 in favor of the White Sox heading into the sixth.
Their lead did not last long though, as Ben Rortvedt and Richie Palacios scored on a two-RBI double from Randy Arozarena to knot the game back up at six-a-piece.
John Brebbia pitched a scoreless seventh inning before Steven Wilson put together his best tight rope act to escape the eighth inning. With the bases load and one out, Wilson induced back-to-back pop ups to Vaughn at first to escape unscathed.
Michael Kopech pitched a clean ninth inning, before the bullpen finally cracked in the tenth.
Deivi Garcia threw a wild pitch that allowed Ben Rortvedt to advance to third before striking out Caballero and Niko Goodrum for the first two outs of the inning. As things were looking like he too was going to escape unscathed, Garcia chucked up another wild pitch that allowed Rortvedt to score from third and give the Rays a 7-6 lead heading into the bottom of the tenth.
Chicago would have the last laugh though.
After Vaughn hit a grounder that advanced Rafael Ortega to third with one out, Benintendi wasted no time and crushed a first-pitch sweeper 401 feet into the right center bleachers for a two-run, walk-off home run.
“[I was] just looking for something up in the zone and something to drive into the outfield,” Benintendi said after the game. “It’s been a slow start for us but it’s like I said out there, it’s a long season … So, hopefully tonight will start something.”
Bullpen relief
After their game Saturday, Grifol said the team’s bullpen is taxed, and they will likely make a bullpen move ahead of their Sunday series finale against the Rays.
According to mlb.com’s Scott Merkin, that move will be calling up right-handed pitcher Prelander Berroa from the Triple-A Charlotte Knights.
Berroa, who was acquired in an early February trade between the White Sox and Seattle Mariners, has an 8.74 ERA across 11 games with the Knights in 2024, but has pitched seven straight scoreless appearances going back to April 6.
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Up Next
The Chicago White Sox have Erick Fedde set to start on the mound Sunday at 1:10 p.m. Central Time in their series finale against the Tampa Bay Rays.
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