Avisail Garcia hit two home runs, and Daniel Palka hit a tiebreaking homer in the ninth inning to lift the White Sox to their fourth victory in a row.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Daniel Palka hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the ninth inning and the White Sox completed their first three-game sweep in a year by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 8-7 on Sunday.
It was Chicago’s first three-game sweep since Aug. 8-10,2017 against Houston. The Sox’ last three-game road sweep occurred April 25-27,2016 at Toronto.
Palka had struck out in each of his first four at-bats before connecting on his 17th homer off Diego Castillo (2-2) with two outs to give the Sox their fourth straight victory.
“I just said to myself, ‘See a ball up and he threw a ball up,’ ” Palka said. “That was the gameplan there.”
Daniel Palka watches his two-run home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Sunday, Aug. 5,2018, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
The Sox have won four games in a row in their final at-bat for the first time since 1972, according to STATS.
Hector Santiago (4-3) went the final 1 1/3 innings for the win.
C. J Cron had a leadoff double in the ninth off Santiago and scored one out later on Kevin Kiermaier’s two-base hit. After Brandon Lowe walked, Jesus Sucre hit into a double play.
Tampa Bay tops the majors in one-run losses (26) and one-run games (46).
Avisail Garcia had a solo homer in a two-run fifth and made it 6-4 on another solo shot during the seventh for the White Sox. It was his eighth career multi-homer game.
Ji-Man Choi tied it at 6-all with a two-run single in the seventh, an inning that saw the White Sox use four relievers.
Sox starter James Shields left with a two-run lead but was denied his first road win since opening day. The one-time Tampa Bay ace threw a season-high 114 pitches, allowing four runs, five hits and four walks over six innings.
Tim Anderson had two RBI singles for the Sox.
Joey Wendle had three hits, including a first-inning RBI single and a solo homer in the fifth that pulled the Rays within 5-4.
