ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Chicago White Sox held a one-run lead in the seventh inning Friday at Angel Stadium.
But the Los Angeles Angels were threatening. Travis d’Arnaud was on second and Gustavo Campero on first with two outs.
Nolan Schanuel lined a single to right against reliever Grant Taylor. Campero attempted to go from first to third while d’Arnaud headed to the plate.
Sox right fielder Mike Tauchman made a strong throw to shortstop Colson Montgomery, who fired to third base. Josh Rojas applied a tag, hoping the Sox recorded the third out before the tying run scored.
“As soon as I tagged him, I looked to see what the call was,” Rojas said.
Plate umpire John Tumpane ruled that d’Arnaud didn’t touch home before the out, and the Sox maintained the lead.
“He said he didn’t make it, so I was pretty pumped about it,” Rojas said.
It was a crucial sequence in a 6-3 victory for the Sox.
“It was a huge play, great job by everyone involved,” manager Will Venable said. “Starting with (Tauchman) to get the ball in and Colson did a great job with the relay there and a really nice job with Rojas, who had awareness of the situation and put the tag on him.”
The Sox made the defensive plays, got big outs from their bullpen and hit four home runs on the way to winning their 41st game, matching last year’s total.
“We felt the difference in spring training,” said Rojas, an addition to the team this year. “A lot of young guys with a lot of hunger to be successful at the big-league level. And I think we’re just seeing that post-All-Star break.
“A lot of the young guys have been coming up — the addition of Colson getting here, swinging a hot bat. (Lenyn) Sosa’s unbelievable. The young guys have been on fire here to start the second half.”
The Sox are 9-4 since the break. They’ve displayed a lot of power at the plate during the stretch, and that continued Friday.
Andrew Benintendi and Sosa homered in the second inning. Montgomery hit a 433-foot blast in the sixth. And Rojas homered in the ninth.
“With (Angels starter Tyler) Anderson, he’s going to nibble a little bit, he’s going to pitch to the edges,” Venable said. “One of those guys if you try to do too much, you’re going to be in trouble. And I thought we did a good job staying to the middle of the field and it resulted in some damage.”
Three of the four home runs came off Anderson.
Montgomery’s home run gave the Sox a 4-2 lead. The Angels scored once in the seventh, but the strong throws and timely tag by Rojas kept the Sox ahead.
The Sox added a run in the eighth on an RBI single by Sosa. Rojas made it 6-3 with the homer in the ninth.
“It’s really fun to watch and it’s even better to be a part of,” Sox starter Shane Smith, who returned from the injured list Friday, said of the offense. “Anytime a guy goes up to the plate, we’ve got a chance to spark something or do something cool.
“It makes it easy for us to go out there and throw strikes. I didn’t do the best job of that early, but every guy that came in after did a good job of that.”
The Sox used five pitchers, with Smith rebounding from control issues in the first — three walks and 35 pitches but no runs, thanks in part to a pickoff throw from catcher Edgar Quero to Rojas at third base for the first out — to provide some length, going 4 1/3 innings.
Smith, who pitched for the first time since July 11 — excluding the two batters he faced in the All-Star Game on July 15 — allowed two runs on two hits with four strikeouts and four walks. He went on the IL retroactive to July 16 with a left ankle sprain that occurred on a workout day for the Sox.
Jordan Leasure recorded four strikeouts in 1 2/3 relief innings for the win. Steven Wilson pitched the final two innings, striking out three, for the save as the Sox are now a win away from eclipsing their 2024 total.
“I can’t speak for last year, I wasn’t part of it at all,” said the rookie Smith, who was selected in the Rule 5 draft in the offseason. “But the way we started and the way we’ve grinded through this year — the first eight weeks wasn’t easy on us either. We’re starting to put together good ballgames and pitch and hit really well.”
