Chicago's Streak Of Four Straight Home Runs Recalls Last Year's World Series Champions
Stephen Strasburg Was the Beneficiary Of Four Straight Homers Last Year
St. Louis returned to the diamond with a bang, spanking White Sox ace Lucas Giolito for four runs in the first inning. The Cardinals had been sidelined since July 29 because of numerous players testing positive for COVID-19, leaving them with many games to be made up.
They had to play a double header Saturday, and they used the strength of those first inning runs to win the opener 5-1. St. Louis also took the nightcap, doubling the White Sox 6-3.
Chicago, however, made it clear that baseball was not as easy as it might have seemed to the game-starved Cards, when the two teams took the field on Sunday. Facing rookie reliever Roel Ramirez in the fifth, four consecutive White Sox hitters slugged home runs.
Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, Jose Abreu and Eloy Jiminez were the quartet to pull it off, the first of its kind since early last year. The Washington Nationals had four players hit consecutive home runs back on June 9,2019, teeing off against some of Grandal's old teammates.
Washington's four straight home runs, hit by Howie Kendrick, Trea Turner, Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon, occurred in a span of just seven pitches off of San Diego right hander Craig Stammen in the eighth inning. Kendrick's pinch hit blast broke a one to one tie, and it allowed Stephen Strasburg to record the win.
It marked Washington's sixth victory in their last eight games which, coupled with a Philadelphia loss, moved the Nationals to just seven games back in the East.
History has of course informed us that the Nationals would not quite capture the division title, but they did much better than that. They took the Wild Card game and won every round of the postseason, which culminated in the franchise's first World Series Championship.
Having matched the Washington feat of back to back to back to back homers, the White Sox are now hoping to match the postseason success of the 2019 Nationals. That home run filled victory Sunday moved Chicago to within three games of Central leading Twins, keeping the Northsiders on pace to qualify for the expanded playoffs.
