CINCINNATI – A 4-2 win over the Reds on Wednesday at Great American Ballpark counts just the same as the other 13 White Sox wins this season. But not all of them are quite as unique.
It took several first-time occurrences for the White Sox to beat the Reds, and as a result, they’ve accomplished a few things for the first time this season.
Starter Davis Martin pitched 6.2 innings for the first time in his MLB career. While he cruised for most of the night – across the first six innings, he allowed just five hits while walking zero batters – it was certainly on his mind in the seventh inning that Wednesday was the longest start of his career.
“Absolutely. After those first two batters [of the seventh] I was like ‘I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go out for the seventh inning ever again,'” Martin said. “Made some adjustments, got two outs, [Jordan] Leasure picked me up at the end. It was a really good learning experience. The more we get in those situations, the more you’re going to learn from going through the lineup, so it was really good.”
Martin allowed a leadoff home run in the seventh and a single in the next at-bat, but he was able to refocus and limit the damage. It made for perhaps his best start of the season as he lowered his ERA to 3.65.
“I think we did a really good job of mixing the fastball and the slider to the away rail,” Martin said. “Bringing the sinker back was really good. Just kind of mixing and matching against this really good lineup that controls the zone really well. The goal of the start was just to be aggressive in the zone and that’s where we were.”
After Martin turned it over to the bullpen, rookie Mike Vasil notched his first MLB save. During the game, he coincidentally mentioned to the bullpen that his last save came about seven years ago during his senior year of high school.
The White Sox acquired Vasil in December’s Rule 5 Draft. If someone would have told him back then that he’d get his first MLB save on Wednesday, he may not have believed them.
“I would definitely be shocked, surprised, excited,” Vasil said. “I now know why those guys get paid a lot, because my heart was beating probably a thousand beats per minute. But no, very, very exciting. More importantly, the team won, series win, playing really well lately. So all that stuff together is very, very important.”
Wednesday’s victory also marked the White Sox first three-game win streak of the season, and the first time they’ve won four of five games. It also clinched their first road series win of the yea and the first time they’ve won back-to-back series.
“Everybody’s happy,” Lenyn Sosa, who hit a solo home run in the game, said. “Everyone has been doing their job, the players, the staff. Everybody. And of course, I’ve got to thank God.”
Luis Robert Jr. moved into first place in MLB with 17 steals, passing Oneil Cruz of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He and the White Sox, in the midst of their winningest stretch of the season, look to keep that momentum going with Thursday’s 12:40 p.m. ET series finale.
“This whole season we’ve been taking this thing day by day,” Venable said. “And so certainly, back to back series, and a road series win is huge. At the same time, these guys are gonna show up tomorrow not thinking about that. We’re gonna go do our best to win a game. But it’s nice for these guys, as hard as they’re working, to get positive results.”
