Mercedes homers, White Sox complete sweep over Red Sox
BOSTON — Yermin Mercedes opened Chicago’s three-run fourth inning with a long homer, and the White Sox completed a sweep of their splitadmission doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday with a 5-1 victory.
Nick Madrigal had two hits and drove in two runs for Chicago, which climbed back to .500 at 8-8.
In the opener, Tim Anderson homered on the game’s first pitch and Dallas Keuchel pitched five solid innings in a 3-2 victory.
The teams play the series finale Monday morning in Boston’s annual Patriots’ Day Game with a scheduled 11:05 a.m. first pitch. Lucas Giolito (1-0, 2.55 ERA) is slated to go for the White Sox against Nathan Eovaldi (2-1, 2.08).
For the first time since the Red Sox started playing their annual Patriots’ Day game in 1959, Monday’s contest will not be in held in conjunction with the Boston Mar
athon, which was moved to Oct. 11 due to the state’s limits on crowds because of the pandemic.
J.D. Martinez had an RBI single for Boston’s lone run in the second game.
Back wearing their traditional white uniforms with red letters and numbers in the nightcap, the Red Sox lost for the third time in four games after their nine-game winning streak.
Mercedes hit a changeup from Martin Perez (0-1) off a backwall behind the batter’s eye, a drive estimated at 431 feet. Danny Mendick had a bloop RBI single and Madrigal a run-scoring, hustle double to make it 4-0.
Matt Foster (1-1) got five outs in scoreless relief for the win.
Perez was tagged for four runs and seven hits in 32⁄3 innings.
The Red Sox wore their yellow-and-blue City Series uniforms in the first game for the second straight day, honoring the Marathon with the colors that stretch across the finish line of the famous race.
Yasmani Grandal had an RBI double and Yoan Moncada drove in a run with a single for the White Sox. Keuchel (1-0) gave up two runs and Liam Hendriks got the final three outs for his second save.
Anderson sent a 96.8 mph fastball from Tanner Houck (0-2) into Boston’s bullpen.
Kike Hernandez homered around the right-field foul pole for Boston.
The doubleheader was scheduled after Friday’s game was postponed due to snow and rain.
THROW OUT THE NUMBERS
Red Sox manager Alex Cora had a simple explanation, joking why left-hander Perez was starting the second game.
“We dig into analytics and sabermetrics and all that, we found out that Martin is actually not a morning person, so we decided to go with Tanner,” Cora said, smiling. “I can tell. We had a lot of day games. You didn’t see him walking around the clubhouse a lot.”