After and exchange of long-ball offense early and then hanging on to a 3-1 win for the White Sox this Memorial Day. But the big play didn’t come from big bats but from 5´6´´ Rikuu Nishida, playing in his first major league game.
The Sox and Twins traded solo homers by Brooks Lee and Munetaka Murakani (No. 18 on the year, retaking the AL lead) in the first inning. Sox starter Anthony Kay was getting hit hard early, and in the second gave up singles to Orlando Arcia and Ryan Kreidler before facing Minnesota catcher Alex Jackson — in only his second MLB game — who smashed a 107.1 mph liner to right for yet another single.
Enter Nishida:
Nishida’s bullet forced Arcia to slide wide, and Drew Romo stayed alert long enough to make the tag on a second try. The play not only kept the score 1-1 bit prevented Twins start Byron Buxton from coming up with two on.
Romo kept his own heroics going in the bottom of the second after Tristan Peters drew a four-pitch walk off Zebby Matthews.
Romo’s fly to right was only 93.4 mph and 352 feet, barely clearing the fence — but barely counts, and the homer made the score 3-1 Sox, where it would stay.
Kay settled down after that and went six innings, giving up just five hits and walking only one while striking out five. Grant Taylor, Bryan Hudson and Seranthony DomÃnguez each tossed a scoreless relief inning. The Sox were outhit 7-6, with Chase Meidroth the only batter to double up, but the long balls did the trick.
In addition to the big throw, Nishida got inundated with fly balls to right, catching seven and almost getting another on a dive. Peters didn’t fare so well on a play to center that was generously called a double, after which Colson Montgomery didn’t bother covering third on a foul pop behind the plate. But while that would no doubt have led to opposing runs in recent years, this year it didn’t matter.
The win moves the Sox to 27-26 (yes, really!!) with Shane Burke and Joe Ryan facing off in the second game of this four-game series tomorrow night.
