Albert Belle hit his 15th home run of the month Tuesday night, matching the all-time July mark that Joe DiMaggio (1937), Hank Greenberg (1938), Joe Adcock (1956) and Juan Gonzalez (1996) shared.
The homer, Belle’s 32nd of the season, raised his RBI total to 93 and combined with James Baldwin’s pitching to produce a 4-1 victory over Tampa Bay in front of 18,402 fans in Comiskey Park.
“Albert is on fire right now,” said Baldwin (6-4). “The only thing we have to do is ride his coattails. That’s what I’m doing.”
Baldwin contributed himself. Over the first six innings, he needed only 66 pitches to blank the Devil Rays on two singles. When he was touched for two hits and Tampa Bay’s only run in the seventh, manager Jerry Manuel called on his bullpen.
Bob Howry and Bill Simas combined to stop the Devil Rays without a hit over the final 2 1/3 innings. Baldwin struck out six and walked one.
Part of “riding Belle’s coattails” Tuesday night, Baldwin said, consisted of Belle’s defense in left field. Belle fired a strike to Ray Durham at second to cut down Randy Winn trying to stretch a leadoff single into a double in the fourth inning.
“Those guys made great plays behind me tonight,” Baldwin said.
“When Albert made that throw, it pumped me up . . . made me want to keep throwing strikes so they would hit it to my fielders.”
The Sox took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Robin Ventura walked and scored on a double by Greg Norton, who scored on an infield error.
Belle made it 4-0 in the fifth when he drove his homer 402 feet to right-center and scored behind Frank Thomas, who had received one of his three walks in the game.
