White Sox hit 4 home runs, pound Pirates for 2-game series sweep

A day after being no-hit by Lucas Giolito, Cole Tucker wanted to ensure there would be no encore. Knowing he was batting leadoff, Tucker made up his mind the moment he awoke.

“Just from Pitch 1, I wanted to go out there and kind of change the narrative of how (Tuesday) night went,” Tucker said. “I pretty much decided when I rolled out of bed that I was swinging at the first pitch, just because I wanted to get the bad juju off of us.”

Tucker hit Chicago White Sox left-hander Dallas Keuchel’s first pitch for a single to center field, but the Pittsburgh Pirates couldn’t sustain any momentum. They left Tucker stranded at second base.

Soon enough, they were in a big hole.

And it was mostly downhill from there.

The White Sox hit four home runs on their way to a 10-3 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field. It was the second consecutive loss for the Pirates (7-19), who were coming off a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers and play a doubleheader at St. Louis on Thursday.

The White Sox got homers from Danny Mendick in a four-run second inning, a solo shot by Edwin Encarnacion in the fourth and a three-run homer by Eloy Jimenez in the fifth, all off Trevor Williams. Jose Abreu added a two-run homer off Tyler Bashlor in the seventh.

“(Williams) really left some balls up, and, obviously, with this group of hitters that they have, you cannot leave balls up out over the plate,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “It shows how strong these guys are. I mean, a couple of those balls off the bat looked like fly balls, and they just continued to carry. … They’re big guys that you have to execute pitches on, and if you leave some balls up, they can really do some damage.”

Williams (1-5) allowed eight runs on nine hits, striking out three and walking two on 95 pitches. He started the second by walking Jimenez and giving up a double to Encarnacion. A sacrifice fly by Luis Robert scored Jimenez, and Nomar Mazara’s single scored Encarnacion for a 2-0 lead.

Mendick hit one to the right-field fence where the 6-foot-5 Gregory Polanco got his glove on the ball but couldn’t hang on. Mendick’s two-run homer gave the White Sox a four-run lead. Encarnacion made it 5-0 by hitting a four-seamer for a 435-foot shot to left field to lead off the fourth. Jimenez hit a two-out, three-run homer to right in the fifth for an 8-0 lead

“You tip your hat to a lineup like that,” Williams said. “They’ve been playing great. They’ve been thumping the ball really good, too. They’re a lineup that really feed off each other.”

With Kevin Newman and Colin Moran out, the Pirates had five players hitting below .200 in the lineup. And the middle of their order went hitless, as Bryan Reynolds, Josh Bell and Polanco went a combined 0 for 10 with six strikeouts and two walks. Adam Frazier also went 0 for 4 with a strikeout.

Tucker, however, was 2 for 3 with a walk while batting leadoff for the second time this season. After singling in the first, he advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Erik Gonzalez but was stranded when Keuchel struck out Bryan Reynolds and Josh Bell.

Tucker also hit a two-out single in the third, only for Gonzalez to line out to center. Tucker drew a walk in the sixth, scoring on a Jacob Stallings two-out single to make it 8-2.

Abreu hit his 12th homer of the season in the seventh for a 10-2 lead, but Gonzalez homered to left off White Sox reliever Zack Burdi, the brother of Pirates pitcher Nick Burdi, to cut it to 10-3.

“I’ve said it before: The arms that we’re having to face this year are really, really good,” Stallings said. “Obviously, Giolito had the performance of his life, and then we get to back up a no-hitter with a former Cy Young winner. But to compete in this league, you’ve got to hit the best and be able to compete with the best. Definitely no nights off in the big leagues anymore. So it’s tough, but you’ve got to answer the bell.”