White Sox 5, Angels 1: Pale Hose play small ball to win third straight

Pitching and hitting wins games. Who knew?

After scoring 29 runs in their last two games, the White Sox played some small ball on their way to a third straight win. They scratched out five runs on nine hits while only committing one error (late in the game). Michael Soroka, Garrett Crochet, and Jesse Chavez combined to hold the Los Angeles Angels scoreless through eight innings.

Picking up the action in the bottom of the first, Andrew Benintendi and Yoán Moncada opened the frame with back-to-back walks. Robert flew out deep to center, advancing both runners, and Andrew Vaughn blooped an RBI duck-snort single into short right field to score the game’s first run.

Kevin Pillar drove home Moncada with a deep sacrifice fly to right, and it was 2-0.

Soroka came out dealing, striking out two in his first two innings.

Moncada ripped a double to the left field corner to lead off the bottom of the third, and Vaughn picked up his second RBI on the afternoon with a single to short left.

Moncada went 1-for-2 with a walk on the day. This spring, he is hitting a blistering .379 with a .983 OPS. It would be a welcome sight if Yoán could carry any of that hot hitting over into the regular season.

After walking the leadoff man, Soroka flirted with trouble in the fourth inning, but he escaped unscathed.

In the top of the sixth, Mike Moustakas worked a one-out walk. Brooks Baldwin entered to pinch-run, and Chuckie Robinson singled to right, moving Baldwin to third. A Zach Remillard safety squeeze bunt scored the fourth Sox run of the game.

Crochet surrendered back-to-back singles to Mickey Moniak and old friend Jake Marisnick in the seventh but got Willie Calhoun to line out to left and Ehire Adrianza to ground out to second to retire the side. Crochet’s line: 3 IP, 2 H, 3 K, 0 BB, 0 R. After his three innings of work, he was still throwing 99 mph. He has yet to give up an earned run in Cactus League play, and so far, it has been a really promising spring for the big lefty. He definitely looks poised to enter the starting rotation.

In the bottom of the seventh, Danny Mendick reached on a bunt single, stole second, and scored on a Dominic Fletcher bloop single to center to make it 5-0, Good Guys. The small ball was working today!

Dominic Leone ran into some trouble in the ninth as the Halos loaded the bases, but only surrendered one run on a bases-loaded sac fly. He closed out the game with a strikeout and a ground out to secure Chicago’s seventh spring win, 5-1!