ST. LOUIS — The Chicago White Sox were down to their last strike, looking directly at a five-game losing streak.
It all changed on one swing from Randal Grichuk.
The veteran hit a go-ahead two-run home run to right field with two outs in the ninth inning, and the Sox held on to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-5 in front of 40,387 at Busch Stadium.
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“It was something that we really needed,” Grichuk said. “I feel like we’ve got a lot of traffic lately. Haven’t been able to get that big hit to push us over the top, and I know we all feel it.
“Luckily tonight I was able to come through.”
The comeback helped the Sox (76-72) increase their lead in the American League Central to 1½ games over the Cleveland Guardians (75-74), who lost 4-3 to the Minnesota Twins earlier Saturday.
“(Hitting coach) Derek Shomon preaches to these guys every single day that we play all 27 outs,” manager Will Venable said. “You play right until the end. That was a great example there, where it was down to two strikes there, down to our last one, and obviously Grich came through.
“That game really embodied the spirit of this club, and we were able to get the win.”
The Sox appeared to be heading for another defeat, entering the ninth trailing 5-4 after Leo Bernal’s tiebreaking solo home run off of reliever Grant Taylor in the eighth.
Kyle Teel began the ninth with a walk against Cardinals reliever Riley O’Brien.
“Trying to get on, pass the torch,” Teel said. “Early in the count, trying to put a ball in play. Let him come to me.”
With one out, pinch runner Brenton Doyle attempted to steal second. He initially was called out, but shortstop Masyn Winn didn’t hang on to the ball while applying the tag.
“I peeked in and saw the pitch out, so I knew I had to put it in an extra gear,” Doyle said. “It was definitely bang-bang. I don’t know what the call would have been, but I just gave it my all and was safe in the end.”
O’Brien struck out Munetaka Murakami, bringing Grichuk to the plate.
The designated hitter fell behind 1-2 in the count, as O’Brien threw him a slider, two sweepers and another slider. Grichuk connected on a 95.6 mph sinker over the outer portion of the plate and hit it 385 feet for the opposite-field home run.
“Obviously the sweeper is really slow and his heater is hard,” Grichuk said. “Has good movement on it. I knew once I got that 1-2, it’s a battle. Luckily he left a sinker over, and I wasn’t trying to do too much and got enough of it.”
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Grichuk, who played for the Cardinals from 2014-17, recalled some advice he recently passed along to Sox teammates.
“I was telling the guys before we came here, it’s a pitcher-friendly ballpark,” Grichuk said. “Don’t try to do too much. Luckily that one snuck out over.”
Grichuk didn’t think off the bat that it would go over the wall.
“I was hoping it would slice and hit the wall,” he said. “(Cardinals right fielder) Victor (Scott II) is a great outfielder, and if it was in play, he would probably catch it. At that point, just hoping and praying.”
Venable said Saturday was just one example of what Grichuk has brought to the team since signing a one-year deal in May.
“Obviously the on-field performance speaks for itself,” Venable said. “To have a guy that is willing to come in and pinch hit, willing to get pinch hit for and really open to whatever it takes for the club to win is amazing and means a lot. What he’s done offensively has been impactful.
“But the way that he handles the clubhouse, he’s one of the veteran leaders in there that makes sure that the guys are on target with what we’re doing before the game, that the vibe is in a good place and really a leader of the clubhouse.”
Grichuk helped the Sox snap a four-game skid. Venable said a win like that, in which the Sox trailed 3-0, “can do a lot.”
“No. 1, we just wanted to win,” Venable said. “Even before that, just play well. I think that we did play well. I’m not saying that we played well enough that that was a win that we deserved by any means. But it was important that we play well. I thought the pregame work was good, the vibe in the clubhouse was good. Then we needed to go out and execute on the field.
“We saw some spots where we didn’t execute. But we saw a lot of spots where we did a really nice job of executing.”
It led to one of the most important wins of the season.
“Just seeing Randal, a veteran player doing that, and keeping the team motivated and coming back to get the win was unbelievable,” pitcher Luis Castillo said through an interpreter. “That just shows we are competing, that we don’t quit. We fight until the last out.”