Reserve infielder Craig Grebeck broke a 2-2 eighth-inning tie with a two- run double Friday night as the White Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 at Comiskey Park.
The Sox loaded the bases in the eighth. Ron Karkovice walked, Joey Cora singled and Tim Raines walked with one out.
Grebeck then lined reliever Jim Acker`s pitch to left to break the tie.
The Sox made it 5-2 when Raines scored on Carlton Fisk`s sacrifice fly.
Donn Pall, pitching in relief of Charlie Hough, was the winning pitcher. The Sox tied the game 2-2 in the seventh against Dave Stieb, who opened the game with a 21-4 career record against the Sox.
Hough started out impressively. He retired the Jays in order on just eight pitches in the first, getting Sandy Alomar on strikes.
Stieb, in contrast, had to labor through 29 pitches in the first inning and needed a brilliant fielding play by Alomor to escape without yielding a run.
The White Sox loaded the bases after two out when Robin Ventura singled, Matt Merullo walked and Pasqua reached on a single up the middle that Alomar smothered with a diving stop to hold Ventura at third. Ozzie Guillen ended the inning by bouncing to Ed Sprague at third.
Sox batters swung aggressively in the second and tagged Stieb for three hits plus the game`s first run. They loaded the bases with one out on successive singles by Karkovice, Cora and Raines. Karkovice scored while Lance Johnson hit into a fielder`s choice. Johnson was thrown out trying to steal to end the inning.
The Blue Jays tied the game 1-1 in the third when Rene Gonzalez singled with two out and scored when Devon White socked a standup triple to the fence in right-center.
The Sox came close to recapturing the lead in the third, but Mark Whiten caught Guillen`s deep fly in right to retire the side after Pasqua doubled.
The White Sox touched Stieb for six hits in the first three innings, but in the fourth Stieb looked like his old self against the South Siders. He needed just nine pitches to put down Sammy Sosa on a foul pop to first, Karkovice on a swinging third strike and Cora on a weak grounder to second.
Sprague managed Toronto`s fourth hit, a single with one out in the fifth. But Hough struck out White with a dancing knuckleball to end the inning.
Well-placed bunts by Johnson and Ventura featured a White Sox threat in the fifth, but Pasqua, bidding for his third straight hit, lined to Joe Carter in left to strand two runners in scoring position.
Stieb hit Raines with a pitch to open the fifth. Trying to sacrifice, Johnson beat out his bunt. Ventura then bunted the runners to second and third with one out. Merullo popped up, preceding Pasqua`s liner to left.
After making two slick bunts in the fifth, the Sox blew a squeeze in the sixth, and it cost them a run.
Sosa slid into first with an infield hit. He raced all the way to third when Stieb`s wild pickoff try skipped past first. Sosa was coming toward the plate on a suicide squeeze when Karkovice missed his bunt, and Sosa was a dead duck.
A couple of ”seeing-eye” hits put the Jays ahead 2-1 in the seventh. After two out, Pat Borders` pop dropped among Cora, Cory Snyder and Sosa in short right. Then Sprague`s liner fell between Sosa and Johnson for a double, scoring Borders.
The Sox chased Stieb in the seventh and tied the game 2-2. Cora walked and took second on a ground out. Bob McDonald replaced Stieb and debuted with a wild pitch that sent Cora to third. Pinch-hitter Frank Thomas singled home Cora.
