The White Sox and their spring winning continued on Sunday, as they picked up their 10th win of the preseason with a 5-4 showing against Kansas City.
Perhaps feeling the heat after I so boldly declared prior to the game that he was “rapidly …” Jarred Kelenic got the South Siders on the board with a lefty-on-lefty home run off Royals starter Noah Cameron, a 430-foot blast that would’ve been gone just about anywhere.
Unfortunately, Sox starter Jordan Hicks was not sharp, walking four over 1 2/3 innings and allowing two runs, one coming on a bases-loaded walk. Hicks’ fastball velocity was down a notch, sitting around 98 mph after being in the 99-100 mph range his first two appearances. He’ll be ticketed for the bullpen sooner rather than later.
The game became tied at two when Luisangel Acuña continued his spring heater, sending a 110 mph line drive screaming up the middle for an RBI single.
Pitching in the multi-inning, middle relief role he’ll see during regular season action, Sean Newcomb looked sharp for two innings before getting touched up in this third, grooving one to Royals first baseman Nick Loftin, who took it out to left field for a 4-2 K.C. lead.
Fortunately, the Sox have Colson Montgomery, who tied the game at four with a blast of his own in the bottom of the inning:
The homer’s 105.9 mph exit velocity just narrowly edged out the 105.7 mph fly out he delivered his first time up, completing a good day for the team’s former top prospect. Anywho, immediately afterward Kelenic gave the Sox a 5-4 lead with his second homer of the game — this one of the Little League variety.
Scoreless innings from Jordan Leasure, Chris Murphy and Tyler Gilbert kept that the score the rest of the way, leaving the final 5-4 as the Sox reached the double-digit win mark in Spring Training.
They’ll be back at it again tomorrow, when they host the Rockies at 3:05 p.m. CT at Camelback Ranch and Chrystal O’Keefe makes her 2026 recapping debut.