David Sandlin’s first big-league pitch initially was called a strike but got switched to a ball after an Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge by Minnesota Twins designated hitter Byron Buxton.
Buxton hit the Chicago White Sox starter’s second pitch for a home run.
“I feel like that kind of took the weight off almost,” Sandlin said. “I was like, ‘Man it can’t get worse than that.’ Like, let’s go now. Welcome to it, I guess.”
Sandlin quickly recovered, striking out two of the next three batters. In fact, Sandlin retired 18 in a row after the home run. He allowed only the one run and one hit with four strikeouts and no walks over six innings of a 15-2 victory in front of 14,796 on Wednesday at Rate Field.
“It’s fearless,” manager Will Venable said. “He really pitched with an edge. There’s definitely a fiery side that you saw there, and I think it came out really early there where he gives up a homer and gets right back into the zone attacking it.”
Chase Meidroth hit a grand slam and Munetaka Murakami had a solo home run, his 20th homer of the season. The Sox reached season highs in runs and hits (18).
“One through nine, sticking with the plan, sticking with the process,” Meidroth said. “You’re going to have days like that where everyone is rolling, and those are the fun days.”
Meanwhile, Sandlin made quick work of the Twins. He threw 61 pitches, 41 for strikes. He received strong defense in the third when right fielder Randal Grichuk made a nice catch near the wall to rob Tristan Gray of a hit.
“He was effective in the zone with all of his pitches,” Venable said. “There was some swing and miss there, gave up a lot of fly balls. Some really good plays defensively for us throughout the game, but he was just attacking the zone in every way he wanted to.”
The offensive support arrived early via a two-run single by Sam Antonacci in the second. Colson Montgomery drove in a run with a double in the third.
The Sox broke the game open with five runs in the fifth. Grichuk, Edgar Quero, Antonacci and Luisangel Acuña each collected one RBI in the inning. Grichuk had another RBI with a single in the sixth, extending the lead to 9-1.
The power showed up in the seventh with the slam by Meidroth against reliever Travis Adams, the first of his career, followed by Murakami’s homer to make it 14-1. Murakami joined Jim Thome (20, 2006) and Frank Thomas (20, 1994) as the only players in Sox history to hit 20 home runs before June. He has homered in three straight games.
“It was awesome up and down the lineup,” Venable said. “Really quality at-bats. (Twins starter Connor Prielipp) had really good stuff on the mound tonight and just had really good at-bats and were able to get a ton of hard contact throughout the lineup.”
The Sox pitching was just as impressive.
“I obviously felt like crap giving up that first run and then they’re ahead, but as soon as we got those runs back I just told myself, ‘Just keep pounding the zone, don’t give it up,'” Sandlin said. “They worked a lot to get the lead back. Don’t be the guy to give it up.”
Sandlin, acquired in an offseason trade with the Boston Red Sox, and reliever Brandon Eisert combined to retire 21 straight before Kody Clemens homered against Eisert leading off the eighth.
Sandlin, Eisert (two innings) and Trevor Richards (one inning) combined on a three-hitter.
“I would say overall, just thankful that I got up here yesterday, kind of got that in yesterday,” Sandlin said of soaking in the moment. “So today was just like a lot of excitement and happiness of, like, I’ve worked my tail off to get to this position, so it wasn’t as much nerves as excitement.
“It was a lot of fun, even seeing the plays made behind me, watching the guys hit and just hit the whole game. It was a lot of fun to be part of that.”
