SOX TIE IT IN 9TH, WIN IT IN 15TH
Pinch hitter Skole singles to make it 3-3, then Abreu drives in garcia in extras
PHILADELPHIA — Manager Rick Renteria has been through worse. So have Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson, Yolmer Sanchez and anyone else who was around the White Sox the last two seasons.
Ninety-five losses in 2017, topped by 100 in 2018. It doesn’t make a 5-16 record after the All-Star break any easier to digest. It only means there is recent familiarity — too recent — with being awful.
“I’m not going to get down,” Renteria said Friday. “I’m not going to allow them [nodding toward the Sox’ clubhouse] to get down. Nobody feels sorry for us. We’re not the only team that has gone through this. We will survive it, as well.”
Somehow the Sox survived against the Phillies in a wild 4-3 victory in 15 innings.
The Sox got the go-ahead run against Roman Quinn, who was called on to pitch when the Phillies depleted their pitching staff. Jose Abreu’s single to left fielder Vince Velasquez — a pitcher who entered the game as a pinch runner — scored Leury Garcia from second.
Lefty Josh Osich pitched the bottom of the 15th to nail it down for the Sox.
‘‘Oh, my god,” Renteria said. “Both clubs battled. They had to stick that young man out there, and he did a nice job trying to keep it there. It’s a big win because we’ve been going through a tough spell the last two weeks.”
This one had become wacky in the 14th when Quinn was called on to pitch. Abreu led off with a walk and was thrown out trying to score from second on James McCann’s single to Velasquez.
Sox righty Carson Fulmer made the last out of the inning, grounding to third with McCann on second. But Fulmer, who pitched two scoreless innings, came up lame running down the line and was replaced by Osich in the bottom of the 14th.
Quinn, the Phillies’ eighth pitcher, threw nothing but soft stuff in the 76 mph range.
The Sox, down to their last strike against lefty Jose Alvarez in the ninth, tied it on pinch hitter Matt Skole’s single on an 0-2 pitch that scored Eloy Jimenez, who had doubled and moved to third on Ryan Goins’ infield single.
Until then, the Sox looked punchless and at times sloppy. Anderson made his majorleague-leading 18th error, throwing the ball away in trying to complete a double play with Bryce Harper motoring down the first-base line and allowing the tying run to score in the sixth inning.
McCann was thrown out trying to steal third in the seventh, and three batters failed to score Yolmer Sanchez from third after he led off the eighth with a triple against Nick Pivetta. Ryan Cordell tapped to drawn-in shortstop Jean Segura, Garcia struck out and Anderson lined out to right.
The first game of a seven-game trip started well, with Ivan Nova taking a 2-1 lead into the sixth behind a two-run homer by Abreu, who was batting .147 with one homer since the All-Star break. Abreu’s blast to left-center followed Anderson’s double against Phillies lefty Jason Vargas for a 2-0 lead. Quinn halved the lead against Nova with a homer in the third.
But all the Sox can do is keep grinding. Or try to. What is there to do in times like these? “It’s a good question,” Renteria said.
“I try to keep it in perspective ... some games have gotten out of hand early because the pitching has given it up early. Other games we’ve been in late where a timely at-bat puts us over the top to win a game. We haven’t had many of those in the last 15, 16 days.
“We’ve had guys recovering, Timmy and Eloy getting their timing back. We’d rather have them here with us. When you have your guys cool off at the same time, it’s hard to score runs. So we keep going. We know they can redeem themselves the next day.”