Power hitting leads the White Sox to a 10-6 win

The Chicago White Sox seem to find March a much more amenable month than February, taking their second straight in a tidy 10-6 win vs. the Colorado Rockies on Saturday.

The afternoon in Glendale got off to a slow start for the Sox. In the second inning, Carlos Rodón issued a walk and allowed a single, setting the table for a three-run homer by Rockies third baseman Pat Valaika. The home run was hit on a slider that did not slide, and Valaika did not miss it.

Fortunately, in Rodón’s three innings of work, he limited his mistakes, as he only allowed a single in addition to those three baserunners. Afterward, Rodón admitted he was angry enough after the home run to want to throw a fit and break some stuff, but in a sign of maturity for the evident No. 1 starter, held off because it would set a bad example for Chicago’s young pitchers.

Meanwhile, the White Sox offense more than picked up the slack, as the hitters came back from that 3-0 deficit very early. Chicago loaded the bases with nobody out in the second, which set up an RBI GIDP from Luis González (ouch). Jon Jay picked up González and the White Sox offense by knocking in a run with a two-out infield single.

The clutch two-out hitting continued in the third, as Tim Anderson hit an RBI double, which was followed by an RBI single by Yolmer Sánchez to put the White Sox in the lead. They never looked back from that point onward.

The White Sox got two two-run homers in the fourth inning, one by Jay, the other by José Abreu.

That was more offense than the White Sox would need the rest of the day, but José Rondón provided a two-run homer of his own in the eighth, capping off the 10-run performance.

As for the pitching, the White Sox bullpen combined for six innings, allowing three runs on four hits. Dylan Covey had the longest outing of the relievers, throwing two scoreless innings, striking out one and allowing one baserunner, a double to Ryan McMahon.

Carson Fulmer pitched 1 ²⁄₃ innings, allowing two runs on two hits. Caleb Frare also had a rough outing, issuing two walks and a hit in just ¹⁄₃ of an inning, allowing a run. It’s early, but the fact that the three most prominent bullpen lefties on the club (Jace Fry, Frare and Aaron Bummer) have struggled this spring is a concern.

Randall Delgado, Kodi Medeiros, and Evan Marshall locked it down by combining for two scoreless innings without allowing a hit.

The was the White Sox’s second consecutive victory, and it improved their record this spring to 3-5. Tomorrow, they will try to extend their win streak to three, as they take on the Cubs at Sloan Park in Mesa at 2:05 p.m. CT.

In the category of “unofficial clouting,” say hello to Micker Adolfo, who’s making it clear he’s ready for official spring training action. South Side Sox’s Kim Contreras provides evidence of the second of Adolfo’s homers, in his final at-bat of the intrasquad game:

More information on today’s game.