PITTSBURGH — Armed with the task of lowering the White Sox’ major league worst 7.71 earned run average and more importantly, helping the Sox avoid falling to 3-6 to open the season, Mike Clevinger came through on the latter on Saturday, the thing that matter most.
Entering with a zero ERA after pitching five scoreless innings against the Astros, Clevinger failed to provide the type of occasional but elusive sparkling start the Sox’ rotation needs but can’t come up, allowing four runs on eight hits and two walks and lasting 5 1⁄3 innings.
But on a night when the Sox lineup kept on hitting through the bad pitching, Clevinger’s work was good enough in an 11-5 win over the Pirates. Six Sox had two hits apiece to mobilize a 14-hit attack against former teammate Vince Velasquez and four relievers, and the Sox (4-5) halted the Pirates’ four-game win streak, evening their series.
Having allowed 44 runs in the previous four games, four runs permitted felt like a quality start. The Sox bullpen, which has also struggled, held Pittsburgh scoreless with Joe Kelly, Aaron Bummer and Kendall Graveman at work before Reynaldo Lopez allowed a two-out homer to Andrew McCutchen in the ninth.
The Sox lead the majors with 10 or more hits in eight games, and this one was their sixth time in as many road games they got 10 or more. Tim Anderson, Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Benintendi, Andrew Vaugh, Yasmani Grandal and Oscar Colas each had a pair of hits. Anderson’s double was the only extra-base hit. Colas and Andrus had two RBI each.
McCutchen’s 70.5 mph soft liner to right in the first went landed for a double and he scored on Carlos Santana’s RBI single put the Sox in an early hole in the first. But Colas’ two-out RBI singled in the second, and a four-run Sox fourth, started by Anderson’s double and highlighted by Benintendi’s RBI single and Yasmani Grandal’s two-run single, made it 5-1.
Clevinger helped the Pirates with an errant pickoff attempt at second base, setting up Bryan Reynolds’ sacrifice fly in the third, and a leadoff walk set the table for a two-run Pirates fifth, making it 6-4 Sox.