Chicago White Sox Ride Highest-Scoring Stretch In Years To Tampa Bay

TAMPA –– The White Sox played like a rejuvenated group coming out of the All-Star break.

To begin the second half, Will Venable's club rattled off three straight wins over the Pirates in Pittsburgh. That marked their first series sweep of the season, the last team in MLB to do so. The starting rotation has been a strength this season and was solid again, with quality starts by Jonathan Cannon and Aaron Civale, and the bullpen allowed just one run all series.

But it was the lineup that really powered the White Sox to the sweep, featuring wins by scores of 10-1, 10-4 and 7-2 over the National League Central's last-place team. That represents the White Sox highest-scoring three-game stretch since Sept. 8-10, 2022 against the Athletics in Oakland, where they scored 29 runs over three games.

Luis Robert Jr. led the team with a 5-for-10 series, including seven runs, one home run, three RBIs and three stolen bases. He and the White Sox will hope that's a sign of things to come for the 2023 All-Star, whose .201 batting average and .631 OPS are career-worst numbers.

No one else necessarily had a massive series, but a collection of solid performances up and down the roster made for big numbers all-around. Miguel Vargas and Mike Tauchman hit back-to-back home runs on Sunday and finished the series 4-for-13 and 3-for-7, respectively. Edgar Quero slugged the second home run of his rookie season on Friday.

Other contributors like Andrew Benintendi, Lenyn Sosa, Michael A. Taylor, Kyle Teel and Colson Montgomery combined to go 14-for-39, a .358 batting average. Across three games, the White Sox had a 23-to-13 strikeout-to-walk ratio, an improvement from their 853-to-331 season-long total.

The series also came with a few players reversing previously poor trends. Rookie infielder Chase Meidroth is just 14 for his last 80 over the last month, but wrapped up the Pirates series going 3-for-8. Vargas went 4-for-10 on Saturday and Sunday, part of a 14-for-83 stretch over the last month.

The sweep sets up a chance for the White Sox to win four straight games for the first time this season. That begins Monday at 7:35 p.m. ET against the Tampa Bay Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Right-hander Sean Burke carries a 4.36 ERA into his start against Rays right-hander Shane Baz, who's 8-5 with a 4.17 ERA.