Dingers!!!

The Chicago White Sox knocked three out of the park this afternoon — with the big blast coming off the bat of Leury García in the second inning — spurring a 10-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies and second series win of the second half.

That second inning started with a Jon Jay single off Phil’s starter Drew Smyly. Jay advanced on an Eloy Jiménez slow roller, then scored on a Ryan Goins single that put the Sox up, 1-0. A James McCann walk, Yolmer Sánchez single and Reynaldo López K later, García came up with the bases loaded. Up to then, Smyly had mostly had bad luck — none of the singles were hit hard. But it wasn’t bad luck that rolled a pitch to Leury:

The 431-foot no-doubter, and the first grand slam of Leury’s career, made it 5-zip and gave López a lot of breathing room — which it turned out he needed. ReyLo cruised through four innings, gave up one run in the fifth on a Scott Kingery double and Corey Dickerson single, but ran into big trouble in the sixth.

That inning started with a four-pitch walk to Bryce Harper, after which Rhys Hoskins hit a bloop to short center:

Leury’s big play didn’t initially mean much, but three singles followed, so it curtailed what could have been a huge inning. López left with the score 5-3, two on and one out, but Aaron Bummer came in to entice pinch hitter Sean Rodriguez into a 6-4-3 double play, which featured a brilliant turn by Yolmer.

Lopez closed out with a line of 5 ¹⁄₃ innings, seven hits, and three each of runs, walks and strikeouts — not up to his recent standards, but enough to get the win. Smyly was truly unlucky — if you saw his line of five innings, four hits, one walk and seven K’s, you’d figure he had a very fine game. That’s because Smyly made Dylan Cease look like a piker in one-inningitis, and was perfect in all the others.

The Sox offense wasn’t done, though. Goins poked an opposite-field double that should have been caught by Dickerson in the seventh and was singled home by Yolmer, making it 6-3. Then, in the eighth, following singles by José Abreu and pinch-hitter Matt Skole, Eloy knocked one to right-center that had just the distance it needed:

It was only 378 feet, but in Philly that’s enough, giving Eloy his first homer since coming off the IL and the White Sox a more comfortable 9-3 lead.

Then Tim Anderson added a poke of his own in the ninth:

That was Timmy’s first long ball since June 22, though he was on the IL much of the interim. It wasn’t exactly a prodigious blast, at 383 feet and only 97 mph, but it was blasted enough.

Meanwhile, the Chicago bullpen did honorably. Bummer and Evan Marshall totaled 2 ²⁄₃ and just one walk. Josh Osich gave up the biggest shot of the day, a massive 438-foot, 107-mph cannonade by Corey Dickerson in the ninth, but that was way too little, way too late for the Phils.

The win, giving a series victory as well, means the Sox are 6-17 since the All-Star break. Carried over a year, that’s a pace for about 120 losses, but there is immediate hope — four games coming up in Detroit against the hapless Pussycats, who are now even without Sox-killer Nicholas Castellanos. First game of the series is tomorrow night, with ray of sunshine Darren Jackson on the SSS coverage.