White Sox bounce back vs. Yanks: 'Felt good to get a win' originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Tim Anderson was asked what the biggest key was for scoring from second base.
“Get home as quick as I can, before the throw gets there, and try to get a win,” Anderson said Saturday night.
Simple enough. It worked to perfection Saturday, when the White Sox shortstop scored on Luis Robert’s single to right field to walk off the Yankees for a 3-2 win.
The Yankees won the first two games of this weekend’s four-game set by a combined score of 25-10.
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“It felt good to get a win tonight,” Anderson said. “Hopefully we can keep building off of that. The energy was good, our fans came out, it was good.”
After New York tied things at two in the top of the ninth, Anderson reached on a one-out single off Aroldis Chapman in the bottom half of the frame. He advanced to second on a Yoán Moncada walk.
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It set the table for Robert, whose 3-1 grounder slipped by Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo to bring Anderson home.
"That's high baseball IQ because you're not going to walk [Chapman] off with a home run,” manager Tony La Russa said of his team’s ninth-inning approach. “His stuff is too good.
“You've got to find a way to get somebody on base."
Said Anderson of the Sox’ approach: “Nowadays everybody’s throwing 99, so it’s kinda regular. But we were able to pull away. We had some good at-bats and Luis came up big, and I was able to score from second.”
The White Sox’ effort Saturday started with Dallas Keuchel, who threw five shutout innings while only allowing four hits.
“We made our fair share of mistakes the first couple of nights, and they capitalized a lot on those,” Keuchel said. “I felt like if I could make some pitches and execute early, I had a good chance."
Keuchel said he was “a little disappointed” his night ended when it did, with his pitch count at 86 after five innings. The Sox went to Kendall Graveman, who threw two scoreless frames.
New York scored once in the eighth and tied things at two in the ninth, but Liam Hendriks got out of the inning with the tie intact — with a little help from his defense.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa attempted to advance from second to third base on Kyle Higashioka’s game-tying sac fly to left field. AJ Pollock threw a strike to cutoff man Yoán Moncada, who threw Kiner-Falefa out at third, where Anderson was covering.
Sox manager Tony La Russa called it the “key play” of the game.
“The guy at second base runs really well,” he said of Kiner-Falefa. “Anything but a throw with a lot of seam on it, and you wouldn’t be able to get it over there quick enough."
The Sox have a chance to earn a series split Sunday, before meeting the Yankees again next weekend in the Bronx.
“The first two games they were just better than us," Robert said. "But [Saturday] we came prepared and were able to execute and then we got on top.”
Said La Russa: "We did a lot of really good things. They're tough to beat. They're a good team. Really good team.
"We walked it off. It was entertaining. Fans had a good night."
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