Nick Martinez is in line to be one of the finalists for the AL Cy Young award this season. So far this year, he’s done a great job at limiting hard hits and walks, making him a tough pitcher to attack. But that was before the White Sox made Friday night look like a Home Run Derby on their way to a convincing 6-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
The fireworks started early on — and they started out of nowhere, too. After getting two quick outs in just six pitches, Martinez’s next pitch was launched 433
feet by Miguel Vargas as John Schriffen was giddier than a kid on the first day of summer vacation:
While it was just a solo shot, and just a 1-0 lead against the AL’s best, it clearly set the tone for what would be a great night for the South Siders.
After Erick Fedde set the Rays down in order, Andrew Benintendi continued blasting for the White Sox. After falling behind in the count early, a “Benny Bomb” to right doubled the lead and clearly had Martinez questioning himself.
As great of a start as it was for the White Sox, the Rays still had a chance to get right back into the game in the bottom of the second. A Cedric Mullins leadoff double put the White Sox in a hole, but once again Fedde came through in the clutch and got out of the inning unscathed.
As the third rolled around, so did Munetaka Murakami’s wish to be invited to the fireworks show. He got the green light on a 3-1 count and made the most out of it, as he crushed a two-run bomb to double the lead yet again. While that was the only action offensively in that inning, the damage was done to Martinez’s confidence. By that point, the Rays starter had already allowed more runs in just two-plus innings than he had in any other game this season.
Junior Caminero tried to will his team back into the game by joining the bomb squad himself in the fourth inning. But even though his home run landed more than 450 feet away, it still only counted as one run, leaving the Rays in a hole that would soon get even deeper.
It looked like the game might return back to normal over the next two innings before Colson Montgomery launched a 425-foot home run that all but confirmed that the air indoors at Tropicana Field was much lighter than the swampy humidity outside the park. The shot ballooned the lead to five and the Rays looked completely out of it.
While the Rays offense was sputtering for most of the night, it’s hard to blame them when the White Sox were looking like Josh Hamilton in the 2008 Home Run Derby. It gets to a point for any team that the writing is on the wall and the offense usually lays down. Chicago deserves a lot of credit for keeping their foot on the gas in a night that was clearly going their way early.
After the offense has slowed to a crawl for most of the last seven games, the sudden power surge was a very welcome sign for Chicago fans. As we get deeper into the season, each win feels just a little bigger than the last, and more pressure is put on the trailing teams in the AL Central.
It’s always important to temper expectations on the season after just one game, but man, is that getting harder and harder to do with every win. October baseball, anyone?
MVP
Munetaka Murakami: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI
Runners-Up
Erick Fedde: 5 IP, 4 H, ER, 6 K, WIN (6-6)
Andrew Benintendi: 2-for-3, R, RBI, BB
Cold Cat
Braden Montgomery: 0-for-4
Runners-Up
Chase Meidroth: 0-for-3, HBP
Tristan Peters: 0-for-4
