In a pinch, a Burger will do
Pinch-hit HR keys 3-run 8th as Sox end 4-game slide
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Jake Burger’s first career pinch-hit homer highlighted a three-run eighth inning and the White Sox stopped a four-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday.
Adam Engel opened the eighth with a pinch-hit double off Brooks Raley and scored on Danny Mendick’s single.
Burger then put Chicago up 3-2 with his drive off Jalen Beeks (1-1) as the White Sox won for just the third time in 10 games.
Reliever Kyle Crick (2-0) went 1 ⅓ scoreless innings for the win.
After Kendall Graveman worked out of a bases loaded two-out jam in the eighth by getting a grounder from Isaac Paredes, Liam Hendriks got the final three out for his 15th save in 18 chances.
Graveman loaded the bases by walking Brett Phillips, who is hitless in 21 at-bats, including 15 strikeouts.
Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen was in line for his sixth win after scattering three hits over seven scoreless innings.
Chicago’s Dylan Cease struggled with his control, allowing two unearned runs, one hit and seven walks along with five strikeouts in 4⅔ innings. The righty threw 54 of 101 pitches for strikes.
Two Cease walks keyed the Rays’ two-run fifth.
Yandy Diaz hit an opposite-field two-out grounder with a strange spin that first baseman Jose Abreu couldn’t handle and was charged with an error, allowing Paredes to score the game’s first run from second.
Ji-Man Choi made it 2-0 when he slapped a single to left off reliever Aaron Bummer to beat the shift.
Cease survived a 33-pitch second by getting an inning-ending grounder to complete a 10-pitch at-bat by Kevin Kiermaier with the bases loaded.