Another day, another homer for Matt Davidson.
The White Sox’ designated hitter hit his team-leading 14th long ball of the season against Chris Tillman in the fourth inning Thursday to break a scoreless tie in a 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Guaranteed Rate Field. It was Davidson’s fourth homer in as many games, this one carrying 411 feet on a high flight path inside the left-field foul pole, much like his grand slam Wednesday night.
The last Sox player to homer in four consecutive games was Alex Rios in 2013. Next on Davidson’s watch list are the six Sox who have homered in five consecutive games: A.J. Pierzynski, Paul Konerko, Carlos Lee, Frank Thomas (twice), Ron Kittle and Greg Luzinski. Davidson is the first since Konerko to homer in every game of a four-game series since Konerko did it against the Seattle Mariners in 2010.
Davidson will take his home run tour north of the border when the Sox play three games against the Blue Jays in Toronto this weekend.
“I’m just trying to ignore everything outside and take every pitch for what it’s worth and be relaxed up there,” Davidson said. “Control my tension, try to have good at-bats and put good swings on the ball.
“I came off a bad two weeks and now four good games in a row. I know there are ups and downs, but it is pretty fun doing that.”
The victory gave the Sox (29-36) three wins in their four-game home series, a nice respite after a 2-7 road trip and before a six-game trip to Toronto and Minnesota.
After the Orioles tied the game 1-1 on Caleb Joseph’s RBI double in the fifth, Davidson doubled and scored the first of four Sox runs in the sixth, coming across on Melky Cabrera’s two-run, bases-loaded single. The Sox filled the bases when Tillman did not field a sacrifice bunt attempt by Kevan Smith (career-high three hits) between the mound and third as third baseman Manny Machado retreated to third to cover the bag.
Jimmy Yacabonis walked Jose Abreu with the bases loaded, and Leury Garcia hit a deep sacrifice fly for the third and fourth runs of the inning, making it 5-1. Leury Garcia had entered the game when Avisail Garcia was ejected by first-base umpire Paul Emmel.
Sox lefty David Holmberg pitched 4„ innings and Anthony Swarzak (3-1), Chris Beck and Tommy Kahnle combined for 3 ‰ innings of scoreless relief. Closer David Robertson, pitching in a non-save situation in the ninth, allowed a leadoff homer to Welington Castillo in the ninth.
This and that
With two singles before he was ejected, Avisail Garcia extended his hitting streak to eight games, raising his average to .343.
— Abreu went 1-for-3 with his 37th RBI and has reached base in 12 straight games, raising his average to .292.
— Lefty Jose Quintana (2-8, 5.30 ERA), who opens the series Friday in Toronto, is 0-4 with a 6.51 ERA over his last seven starts (two quality). Quintana hasn’t won since pitching eight scoreless innings at Kansas City on May 2.
Follow me on Twitter @CST_soxvan.
Email: dvanschouwen@suntimes.com
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