Tristan Peters came up in the eighth inning with an opportunity to hit for the cycle for the second time this season.
“I don’t know if you can really try to hit a triple,” Peters said. “But I was trying.”
The Chicago White Sox left fielder walked on four pitches. He had to settle for a three-hit performance, including homering for the fourth straight game, in an 11-7 win against the Texas Rangers in front of 19,892 at Rate Field
Peters doubled in the first, singled in the fourth and homered in the sixth. He walked in the third and eighth, falling a triple shy of the cycle — which he accomplished July 10 against the Athletics.
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“He’s been outstanding,” manager Will Venable said. “He’s in a really good spot. Obviously we’ve seen this from him before. Not the four homers in a row, which is really special to do. But we’ve seen him take really good swings and have these stretches where he’s as good of a hitter as anybody.”
Peters played a big role in a six-run first inning.
The rally began with a bloop double down the left-field line by Sam Antonacci. Munetaka Murakami walked and Miguel Vargas dropped a bloop single in front of left fielder Wyatt Langford. Langford attempted to throw out Antonacci at third, but the ball sailed out of play and Antonacci scored on the throwing error.
Braden Montgomery followed with an RBI single, making it 2-0. A walk to Colson Montgomery loaded the bases.
With one out, Peters drove in two with a broken-bat double.
“I was sitting on the heater, waiting for that pitch,” Peters said. “(Rangers starter Jacob deGrom) never threw that one over the plate. He showed me a few really good changeups. And I knew that he likes his slider, so he eventually threw it on that 3-2 count, and I’m just trying not to expand in the zone there.
“I just tried to keep my hands through it. It did get in on me, but my direction was right.”
Brenton Doyle followed with a broken-bat, two-run single, giving the Sox a 6-0 lead.
“DeGrom’s probably not giving up a ton of damage,” Venable said. “He’s just such a good pitcher that to be able to string so many things together there early was really special.”
DeGrom threw 42 pitches in the inning. He exited after 3 2/3 innings, allowing eight runs on six hits with two strikeouts and five walks.
Sox starter Anthony Kay allowed four runs on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 4 2/3 innings.
“I felt pretty good,” Kay said. “Didn’t really have much command of changeup or slider today, so that will be a point of emphasis this week, working on it. Just kind of finding that release point a little bit. And overall, (the outing) was all right. Thankfully the boys picked me up with six in the first and 11 total.”
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He ran into trouble in the fifth, surrendering a two-run home run to Danny Jansen and an RBI single to Ezequiel Duran before exiting with two outs.
The Sox were leading 8-4, but the Rangers had two on when reliever Jordan Hicks entered to face Jake Burger. Hicks struck out Burger, preserving the four-run lead.
The Sox appeared to get some breathing room with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. The Rangers scored three in the sixth, including a two-run home run by Justin Foscue, to cut the Sox lead to 10-7.
Peters pushed the lead back to four with his solo home run in the sixth.
“I know I have power in there and I pull the ball a lot in the air, so I know I can do it,” Peters said of the home runs.
He’s one away from tying the team record for most consecutive games with a home run, a mark shared by Murakami, A.J. Pierzynski (2012), Paul Konerko (2011), Carlos Lee (2003), Frank Thomas (twice in 1994), Ron Kittle (1983) and Greg Luzinski (1983).
The Rangers loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth, prompting the Sox to bring in reliever Grant Taylor. The right-hander got Cody Freeman to hit a grounder to Chase Meidroth, who stepped on second to end the game.
“They have a really good lineup,” Venable said. “As Anthony was getting through that fifth inning and just wasn’t able to get to the end, it kind of put us in a spot where we had some one-pluses and the second up from a lot of guys.
“Just a little bit misaligned there in the bullpen, but got enough outs to obviously get the job done.”