Moncada caps comeback in extras vs. Reds

CINCINNATI -- Yoán Moncada thinks things are starting to come around for him at the plate. It was his bases-clearing, three-RBI triple in the 12th inning, along with multi-home run games from Daniel Palka and Avisaíl García, that helped lift the White Sox to a 12-8 win at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday.
The back-and-forth affair eclipsed the four-hour mark and reached the 12th inning in a game in which Chicago erased a 7-2 deficit and tied the game on two different occasions.
A pair of Reds errors with a walk in between loaded the bases with no one out and set the stage for Moncada's game-winning hit down the right-field line. Tim Anderson reached to start the inning when Scooter Gennett botched a ground ball to second. Matt Davidson walked, then Adam Engel laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance them and was safe on a throwing error.

The Reds got an out when Omar Narváez lined out to first base, then Moncada stepped to the plate. He worked a 3-1 count and got a fastball in on his hands but was able to shoot it down the right-field line to give the White Sox an 11-8 lead.
"It was a really tough pitch. Inside and up, and I put the barrel on the ball and tripled," Moncada said. "Just [tried] to keep my hands close to my body, get the bat out front and hit it with the barrel."
All four of the White Sox runs in the inning were unearned. The triple was Moncada's third hit of the night.
"Really happy for him," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "He was in situation where they weren't going to walk him. The guys were telling me how he kept that ball fair, they do not know. But he got something he could handle and did a really nice job."
It appeared the White Sox comeback bid may fall short when Cincinnati took an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the eighth, but Garcia clubbed his second home run of the night in the ninth inning on an elevated 1-0 fastball to extend the game. Garcia has six home runs in his last eight games and is hitting for power since being activated off the disabled list on June 22.

"He's just squaring the ball up," Renteria said. "He's getting good pitches to hit. He's seemingly getting balls he can handle and not missing them right now, which is good for him."
The five-run comeback from 7-2 was capped when Leury García lined a two-out, pinch-hit RBI single over the head of Gennett in the eighth. Cincinnati quickly regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning Billy Hamilton led off with base hit, later stole third and scored on a close play at the plate.

Chicago fell behind early as starter Lucas Giolito found trouble quickly. Two balls left the yard before Giolito recorded an out. José Peraza led the game off with a triple, then Gennett sent a 1-1 curveball over the right-field wall for a two-run home run. After a walk to Joey Votto, Giolito ran a two-seamer in on Suarez, who turned on it for the Reds' second home run as Cincinnati jumped out to a quick 4-0 advantage.
"I felt like I was throwing the ball hard," Giolito said. "I'd say kind of what got me today was my offspeed pitches, especially the slider, did not have the break that I like to see it have."
Giolito held it together until the fifth. He retired 12 of the next 15 hitters he faced and put up zeros in each of the next three frames as the White Sox clawed back into the game. Palka's first home run of the game sliced the deficit in half, a towering two-run shot in the fourth inning.
Giolito fell victim to the long ball for a third and final time in the fifth inning. Suarez drew a one-out walk, and Jesse Winker followed with a base hit. The right-hander then hung a slider to Adam Duvall, who pulled it over the left-center-field wall for a three-run home run to put the Reds ahead 7-2. Giolito completed what would be his final inning soon after.

Garcia and Palka clubbed back-to-back solo shots and helped spark a four-run sixth inning that pulled the White Sox within one at 7-6.
"Unreal," Giolito said of the run support. "From my perspective, I didn't get the job done but the team was there to pick me up and it's an awesome feeling having those guys playing their hardest behind you."
Moments That Mattered
Multi-home run games: Garcia and Palka hit two home runs apiece and picked the Chicago offense up on a couple of instances when it appeared the game may get away from the White Sox. Palka's mammoth 448-foot shot in the fourth cut the deficit in half and got the White Sox back into the game.

"I missed the two heaters that they kinda gave me over the plate," Palka said. "He threw me a breaking ball that just kinda hung up there, and I got it."
The two went back-to-back to spark the four-run rally in the sixth. Garcia clubbed a hanging slider 412 feet into the upper deck, and Palka sent a fastball over the left-center wall at 114 mph, per Statcast™. It changed the momentum of the game and eventually ousted starter Anthony DeSclafani.

"It certainly changes your perspective and your outlook more than anything," Renteria said. "They got pitches they could handle, and [DeSclafani] was doing a nice job."
Of the four homers, perhaps none was bigger than Garcia's solo shot in the ninth that tied the game for the second time and kept the White Sox alive.
"We never gave up," Garcia said. "We did our best every at-bat in every inning. We show up every day."
MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
After Moncada's three-run double, Yolmer Sánchez nearly hit another home run for the White Sox, but Brandon Dixon was able to reach up over the right-field wall and knock it down to hold Sanchez to a double. Upon umpire review, the call of no home run was upheld.

UP NEXT
The White Sox finish up their three-game set against the Reds Wednesday with Dylan Covey (3-3, 4.82 ERA) on the mound for a 6:10 p.m. CT game at Great American Ball Park. The right-hander will look to rebound after getting roughed up in his last start, against the Rangers, who tagged him for eight runs on nine hits in just two innings. After stringing together a couple of quality starts around the beginning of June, Covey has failed to make it past the fifth inning in his last three outings. Sal Romano (4-8, 5.30 ERA) will be on the hill for Cincinnati.