The White Sox rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on Tuesday to steal a win from the Texas Rangers.
Steal a win, they certainly did.
In the bottom of the eighth, some long balls from Eloy Jiménez and Elvis Andrus helped the White Sox to four runs, and some poor outings from Keynan Middleton and Aaron Bummer helped Rangers to six.
Andrus had two home runs to tie the game and found himself at second base to set the stage for a go-ahead from Zach Remillard. Rémillard held his end of the bargain with a single, but a fairly perfect pitch from Travis Jankowski into left field pinned Andrus to the plate. After review, Rangers catcher Jonah Hein was ruled to have violated the home plate collision rule and the appeal was overturned.
Hey, that counts in the win column as well as any other.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, who was sent off after the appeal was overturned, dropped everything after the game.
“For this call to be made, I’m stunned,” Bochy said. “It’s absolutely one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen and it’s been replayed. I just don’t get it. I don’t care how many times they try to explain it. You can’t to do that in this situation. It’s a shame. It’s embarrassing, really.
“There was never any contact with the receiver. It was a sweep beacon. I don’t understand. I really don’t know. Again, I’m shocked.
White Sox manager Pedro Grifol more or less shrugged off the ordeal.
“I really haven’t seen that review,” Grifol said. “The only thing I can say is that we challenged both. We challenged the play at home plate and blocked home plate. …
“…If you’re on the plate, I think they’ll call you for infraction.” However, I have not seen this particular piece.
The White Sox will go for a series win against the Rangers on Wednesday night with Michael Kopech on the bump.
Hopefully they won’t need any more cinematic magic to secure a win.
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