Paredes gets 3 hits as Rays beat sliding White Sox 3-2
Tampa Bay Rays catcher Christian Bethancourt, left, celebrates with relief pitcher Kevin Kelly, right, after their win over the Chicago White Sox in a baseball game on Friday, April 28, 2023, in Chicago. Credit: AP/Charles Rex Arbogast
CHICAGO — Isaac Paredes had three hits, including a leadoff homer in the ninth inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the sliding Chicago White Sox 3-2 on Friday night.
Paredes drove Kendall Graveman’s second pitch deep to left for his fourth homer. He also doubled twice and scored twice.
Rookie Kevin Kelly, the last of five Tampa Bay relievers, got the final out for his first career save. Colin Poche (2-0) got the win after the bullpen surrendered just one hit in the final four innings.
The AL East-leading Rays won for the eighth time in 10 games.
Chicago has dropped nine in a row for the franchise's longest skid since it lost 10 straight games in 2013.
Jake Burger and Andrew Vaughn homered for the White Sox. Lucas Giolito was charged with two runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Graveman (1-2) has allowed one run in each of his last two appearances.
Tampa Bay Rays' Isaac Paredes, center, celebrates his ninth-inning home run in the dugout against the Chicago White Sox during a baseball game on Friday, April 28, 2023, in Chicago. Credit: AP/Charles Rex Arbogast
Brandon Lowe hit a sacrifice fly in the first for Tampa Bay, and Manuel Margot tied it at 2 with a two-out RBI single in the fourth.
The Rays improved to 5-0 against the White Sox this season. They swept a three-game series in St. Petersburg last weekend and won the opener of this four-game set on Thursday night.
Vaughn homered in the first off Zach Eflin, and Burger added his seventh in the second inning.
Eflin allowed six hits, struck out five and walked two in five innings.
Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Ryan Thompson delivers during the sixth inning of the team's baseball game against the Chicago White Sox on Friday, April 28, 2023, in Chicago. Credit: AP/Charles Rex Arbogast
ROBBED!
Burger made a bid for a go-ahead homer in the eighth against Poche, but Randy Arozarena jumped to make a catch just above the yellow line in right-center.
TOSSED AGAIN
Chicago manager Pedro Grifol was ejected for the second straight night after a heated first-inning argument with home plate umpire Marvin Hudson. Grifol and the White Sox seemed to take umbrage after Eflin hit Luis Robert Jr. in the back with his first pitch after Vaughn’s homer.
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