White Sox starter Sean Burke was in a gift-giving mood postgame.
In the first inning of Thursday’s 8-0 victory against the Brewers, Burke loaded the bases on three walks. His fastball command eluded him, and he looked poised for another poor first-inning performance.
With two outs, Burke hung an 81.9 mph curveball high in the zone that Rhys Hoskins looked to have crushed for a grand slam. But Luis Robert Jr. ran for the center-field wall with his eyes tracking the flight of the ball. As Robert approached the wall, he leaped and snatched the ball from going over the fence.
All Burke could do was tap his chest twice in gratitude for the catch.
“I owe Luis something,” said Burke, who threw six scoreless innings, allowing two hits, three walks and striking out five. “I don’t know what I owe him — he’s got a lot more money than I do — but I owe him something.”
Burke said Robert Jr.’s grab helped him settle down “a lot.” Burke entered Thursday with a 10.80 ERA in the first inning.
“Just getting out of the first inning, it’s been frustrating a little bit for me,” Burke said. “This year, the first inning has been giving me some issues. It’s something I’ve been trying to work on with some pregame stuff, trying to make small adjustments to get myself ready to go in that first inning. Definitely think that catch helped out a ton. Just a sigh of relief that I was out of it.”
It was a clean all-around performance for the Sox (8-23) to end their three-game skid, including a six-game home losing streak. Burke delivered quality innings, and the offense poured in runs. Chase Meidroth’s first-inning leadoff double set the tone for the Sox — he later scored to make it 1-0 following Robert’s RBI single.
The Sox offense exploded in the sixth and seventh innings. In the sixth, after back-to-back two-out singles by Edgar Quero and Andrew Vaughn, Miguel Vargas cleared the bases on a three-run homer to make it 4-0.
In the seventh, Lenyn Sosa’s single followed by back-to-back-to-back walks by Michael A. Taylor and Meidroth loaded the bases. Andrew Benintendi drew a walk to make it 5-0. Then Robert Jr. doubled on a sharp line drive to center field to score three runs and make it 8-0.
But you can trace Thursday’s win back to Robert robbing Hoskins of a grand slam.
“That catch was one of the keys of the game,” Robert said through an interpreter. “Not just for Sean but for us as a team collectively. With a grand slam in the first inning, it would have been different there.”
Elko watch
Tim Elko, the Sox’ power-hitting first-base prospect, has the attention of Sox fans with his dynamic hitting at Triple-A Charlotte.
Entering Thursday’s game, Elko was batting .367/.448/.711 with nine homers. He could provide a punch for the Sox’ offense
“Ultimately, [general manager Chris Getz] is making those decisions, but we talk about all our players in the system all the time,” manager Will Venable said.