Wednesday was the type of offensive night the Chicago White Sox have been craving.
They hit four homers. They had multiple innings scoring more than one run. And, for the first time all month, they played a game that was decided by more than four runs.
The Sox clobbered the Los Angeles Angels 11-5 in front of 29,861 at Angel Stadium.
“It was a really good team win,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “This is what we’re capable of doing. We’ve just got to be consistent.”
Luis Robert Jr. hit a two-run homer in the first — his 23rd of the season. Seby Zavala hit a solo homer in the second. Eloy Jiménez led off the third with a homer and Zavala homered again in the fifth.
“I didn’t miss my pitches,” said Zavala, who also had a two-run single. “I’ve missed quite a few the last few weeks, and I just got them (Wednesday). I just have to keep it going.”
There was production throughout the Sox lineup, leading to 17 hits. All nine starters either had a hit or scored a run.
“It was a good time to score a lot of runs,” Zavala said. “The Angels put up a few runs, it was nice to have a cushion throughout the day.”
Andrew Vaughn had three hits, including a three-run double in the third, and scored a run. Zavala drove in four runs in his three-hit effort. Zach Remillard had three hits, one RBI, one stolen base and one run.
“This game is going to be up and down a lot,” said Jiménez, who went 2-for-5. “Today it was good for us because that reminds us of what we can do. I feel so happy for that. But tomorrow is another day.”
Grifol has often talked about the need for “crooked numbers,” and the Sox obliged by scoring more than one run in four innings. They scored two in the first, two in the second, three in the fourth and two in the ninth.
“That’s what it’s about,” Grifol said. “It’s about controlling the strike zone, taking your walks, let the next guy behind you do it. It’s about taking what’s given to you. It’s just an overall really good game on all facets of the game.”
The Sox scored at least one run in each of the first five innings.
“It’s just great to see our offense get going,” Grifol said. “That’s kind of what we are all waiting for. That’s what we are all working for. I think our pitching is doing a really good job. We have to get our offense going.”
Sox starter Lucas Giolito settled in after allowing two runs in the first with a stretch of retiring 12 straight.
He allowed the four runs on six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks in seven innings.
“The offense was the story tonight, not me, the offense,” Giolito said. “They just erupted tonight. It was fantastic. Pitching comfortably with that kind of support makes your job so much easier. Wish I finished stronger. It’s funny, I feel my last two wins I didn’t pitch well enough to deserve them, but baseball is weird like that. Overall I felt I was commanding the fastball well, my changeup was very good, the slider was good to lefties, bad to righties.
“A little more comfortable (pitching with the larger lead) but at the same time I wanted to make sure we kept our foot on the gas pitching wise, defensively. We did that most of the outing until (giving up two solo homers in) the seventh inning.”
The Sox have occasionally had nights like Wednesday this season. The key is building on it as they try to create some momentum heading into the All-Star break.
They are 12 games under .500 (35-47) and trail the division-leading Cleveland Guardians by 5 1/2 games.
“I’ve said this a lot with games that are heartbreakers and games we don’t play well — we’ve got to flush it and move on,” Grifol said. “We’ve got to flush this one and come back and do it again tomorrow.
“(Tuesday) was the midway point (of the season). So today is the first day of the second half and we’ve got some work to do . But I was really happy with the way we played the game, the energy.”
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