White Sox ride contact hitting to a 7-3 victory

The Chicago White Sox wrapped up the last full week of spring training with a 7-3 win over Cleveland, thanks to some solid pitching from a gumbo of arms, and timely hitting.

In the first, starting pitcher Zach Thompson worked his way into trouble, allowing back-to-back singles to open the game. But, he struck out slugger José Ramirez and induced a double play grounder from Carlos Santana to escape the jam unscathed. That was Thompson’s only inning of work, and Evan Marshall followed by pitching a 1-2-3 second inning.

The longest outing from a White Sox pitcher was from southpaw Sean Nolin, who threw three scoreless innings, striking out four, though it was not drama-free. Nolin allowed five baserunners in his three innings (two walks, a double, and two singles). It was a strong performance by the White Sox pitching staff in what turned out to be a bullpen day.

It would have been a perfect day if not for Jordan Luplow, who got an RBI single off Danny Dopico and a two-run single off José Nin to drive in all of Cleveland’s runs.

We regret to inform you that Eloy Jiménez is no longer batting 1.000 since signing his contract extension. However, he drove in Moncada with a two-out RBI single in the third. Eloy finished 1-for-3 and inched his spring average up to .250.

That RBI single pushed the lead to 2-0, after Zack Collins raced home on a wild pitch earlier in the inning. Potential 2019 AL MVP Leury García followed with an RBI single of his own to wrap up a three-run third.

The next run was scored on a solo home run by Adam Engel, who has had a strong month offensively. The home run was his third this spring, and raised his OPS to a solid .861.

The White Sox also had a big seventh inning, as they put up three more runs to help ice the game. Matt Skole drove in one with a single after entering the game to replace Yonder Alonso. Preston Tucker and Engel added RBI groundouts later in the inning.

The win improved the White Sox’s spring record to 10-17 that guarantees they’ll finish at least tied for 14th in Cactus League play this year. The team travels to Chase Field to face the D’Backs tomorrow night for their penultimate spring training game. That matchup will start at 8:40 p.m. CT. We will not need to say this often the rest of the year, but it will not be viewable, and the only radio broadcast will be the Arizona call via MLB.TV. Darren (Don’t Call Me Darin) Jackson makes his season debut in the recap booth for SSS.