CINCINNATI — On nights like Friday, the White Sox’ chase rate can be rendered moot.
Multi-run homers like Elvis Andrus’ three-run shot and Luis Robert’s three-run blast will do that. They carried the Sox to a 5-4 win over the Reds, their fourth win in five games.
Lance Lynn pitched 6 2⁄3 innings of four-run ball, finishing strong after Jonathan India’s go-ahead homer in the fifth. Robert also doubled off Jake Fraley from first after Reynaldo Lopez walked Fraley leading off the ninth. Lopez capped the win by striking out Nick Senzel.
The White Sox’ 33.2 percent chase rate — swings at pitches outside the strike zone divided by pitches outside the zone — is last in the majors.
“Hitting always comes down to selectivity, shrinking the strike zone and hitting the pitches you can really do damage with,” Grifol said. “That’s pretty hard to do. When you have guys throwing strike to ball pitches with incredible numbers, it all boils down to being selective, shrinking the strike zone, getting a good pitch to hit. And the guys that are consistent doing that are going to hit a lot. The guys who are not consistent right now are the guys who have to get to work and shrink that zone.”
As Grifol noted, everyone in the majors has had success and has “a pretty good swing.”
And then it comes down to what hitting great Ted Williams, who authored “The Science of Hitting,” said was the basic key to it all: Getting a good pitch to hit.
It’s not as easy as it might look, Grifol said. It’s obviously not easy for the team that’s the worst in the majors at it.
“It’s tough to hit in this league and it’s tough to hit [in high leverage, late-inning] parts of the game,” Grifol said. “Guys are coming in with plus-plus stuff.”
The Sox were 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position in their 7-3 loss to the Twins in 12 innings Thursday, halting their season-high three-game winning streak.
“The previous day they had the bases loaded with [Byron] Buxton and [Carlos] Correa up and we were able to get out of that,” Grifol said. “So it’s just baseball, doesn’t mean we don’t work on it and talk about it, it doesn’t mean we won’t try to make improvements in that area. Hitting with runners in scoring position is a tough thing and I believe in our guys. I believe at the end of this thing we’ll be good at it, right where we need to be.”
Andrus clubbed a good pitch to hit from Hunter Greene for a three-run homer in the fifth inning, erasing a 3-0 Reds lead against Lance Lynn built on on an RBI double by TJ Friedl in the third and a pair of RBI singles by Jake Fraley and Nick Senzel in a four-hit Reds fourth. Jonathan India’s solo homer to center in the fifth put the Reds back on top.
Robert turned around a 100-mph fastball from Greene for a two-run homer in the sixth giving the Sox a 5-4 lead.
Lynn struck out eight and walked none.