White Sox’ Leury Garcia steps in, steps up in win over Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — With Avisail Garcia a late scratch Monday because of an undisclosed illness, Leury Garcia took advantage of his opportunity.

He had a triple and scored in the fifth inning as a late lineup addition and put the White Sox ahead with a sacrifice fly in the sixth against the Angels in the 5-3 victory. The Sox won for the fifth time in their last eight games.

With the trade deadline a week away, Garcia’s late scratch caused a stir, but manager Rick Renteria confirmed the illness.

“Avi is sick; we’re going to have him checked out,” Renteria said. “He wasn’t feeling good, so I’m not going to wait. I’m going to set the lineup and let Leury get in there.”

After an off-site examination, Garcia was given a clean bill of health, according to the Sox, and returned to Angel Stadium during the game. He entered the game in right field in the eighth inning.

Avisail Garcia had a hit in 15 of his previous 17 games since June  23, blasting nine home runs in that stretch with a 1.110 OPS.

Sox starter Lucas Giolito (7-8) allowed three runs and five hits in six innings, and Jose Abreu hit his 14th home run.

Angels rookie Shohei Ohtani hit his eighth homer.

Bullpen for Fulmer

After some struggles in the rotation at Class AAA Charlotte, 2015 first-round draft pick Carson Fulmer is seeing some time out of the bullpen. The Sox seem to like what they see after four of his five outings were scoreless.

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“I think it just has to do with seeing if that is a better fit,” Renteria said. “Not that starting isn’t a fit, but we have a lot of guys coming through, and we need to start helping these guys evolve into what might be the next phase of their career with us.”

This and that

Outfielder Eloy Jimenez was named International League batter of the week after going 12-for-28 with three home runs at Charlotte.

† Outfielder Ryan Cordell, a member of the Sox’ 40-man roster, returned from the disabled list and was assigned to Class AA Birmingham.