SPORTS
Saturday, April 6, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
Moncada, White Sox win home opener, beat messy Mariners
By ANDREW SELIGMAN
Associated Press
shot to center.
CHICAGO — Yoan
Moncada has a more
aggressive approach at the
plate, a new position in the
field and a strong belief that
games like this are going to
be the norm for him.
Moncada hit a go-ahead,
two-run single in the sev-
enth inning and the Chi-
cago White Sox won a wild
home opener, beating the
Seattle Mariners 10-8 on
Friday.
A day after their home
opener was postponed
because
of
inclement
weather, the White Sox
ended Seattle’s four-game
winning streak. The Mari-
ners had been off to a fran-
chise-best 7-1 start.
Chicago took advantage
of three errors by shortstop
Tim Beckham in the first
inning for an early lead,
then rallied when the Seat-
tle bullpen couldn’t find
the strike zone. The White
Sox drew three walks in
the seventh, with Monca-
da’s single off Zac Rosscup
making it 9-8 after Cory
Gearrin (0-1) hit Weling-
ton Castillo with the bases
loaded.
Moncada, batting .458
with 10 RBIs through six
games, just missed a grand
slam in the first when he
lined a two-run double
against Yusei Kikuchi that
deflected off a leaping cen-
ter fielder Mallex Smith’s
glove.
“Days like today are
going to come in a bunch
Eloy Jimenez acknowl-
edged he felt some pressure
after going 0 for 4 in his first
game in Chicago. But the
White Sox’s prized prospect
also enjoyed the moment.
“I tried having fun,” said
Jimenez, whose parents were
at the game. “Especially
(since) it was a tough day. I
tried to not think about it and
just enjoy the moment and be
playing with the fans.”
Jimenez at home
Quotable
“A lot of exciting things
happened. I’m a dad. I had
a good game today. Special
week for me.” — Anderson.
Trainer’s room
AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox players stands for the national anthem before a baseball game on Friday in Chicago.
this season,” he said
through a translator.
The White Sox are
counting on that from the
23-year-old Moncada in his
second full season. A key
piece in the deal that sent
ace Chris Sale to Boston at
the 2016 winter meetings,
he led the majors in strike-
outs and committed more
errors than any other sec-
ond baseman last season.
But he adjusted his
approach at the plate,
switched to third base. And
he is looking like a different
player in the early going.
Tim Anderson added
three hits, including a solo
homer in the eighth. He
scored four runs and drove
in three after missing two
games to be with wife Bria
for the birth of their second
child, daughter Paxton.
Domingo Santana and
Dan Vogelbach homered
early for Seattle. Ryon
Healy and Mitch Haniger
hit two-run homers in the
sixth for an 8-6 lead.
Ryan Burr (1-0) worked
a scoreless 1⅓ innings in
relief. Alex Colome retired
all three batters in the ninth
for his second save in as
many opportunities, and
Chicago overcame a shaky
start by Reynaldo Lopez
to win for the third time in
four games.
“We got a lot of gamers
on the team, man, and even
though we lost that game
we showed a lot of fight
and it shows a lot about our
team,” Beckham said.
Starters struggle
Kikuchi gave up six runs
— four earned — and seven
hits over five innings in his
first start since his father
died of cancer over the
weekend.
Lopez allowed six runs
and six hits. Healy chased
him with a tying, two-run
drive to the left-field bullpen
in the sixth after Omar Nar-
vaez led off with a single.
Jace Fry retired the next two
batters before Smith singled
and Haniger drove a two-run
Mariners: Manager Scott
Servais said INF/DH Edwin
Encarnacion (left hand) was
feeling “a lot better” and
was available to pinch hit
after being scratched from
the lineup against the Los
Angeles Angels on Tues-
day. The Mariners opted
to keep Encarnacion out of
the lineup for the second
straight game because of the
chilly conditions in Chicago.
... Servais wasn’t sure if 2B
Dee Gordon (tight groin)
will be available Saturday
after exiting this game in the
fourth inning.
White Sox: OF Jon Jay
(strained right hip) had no
timetable for his return from
the injured list, though he
said he is getting better. He
also said the problem side-
lined him last month is more
in the groin area.
Elliott earns 1st short track pole with run at Bristol
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
BRISTOL, Tenn. —
Chase Elliott positioned
himself to give Hendrick
Motorsports a shot at its
first victory of the season
with a pole-winning run at
Bristol Motor Speedway.
Elliott earned his first
pole on a short track with
a fast lap at 131.7132 mph
on Friday around the bull-
ring to earn the fifth pole
of his career. His previous
four were at either Daytona
or Talladega, the biggest
and fastest tracks on the
NASCAR circuit.
“I’ve really been want-
ing a pole outside of Day-
tona and Talladega for a
long time now, so I feel like
I was finally able to contrib-
ute from my end a little bit
more and get a pole that my
team certainly deserves,”
Elliott said. “We have some
work to do for Sunday and
try to get it driving good for
500 laps.”
Elliott edged team-
mate William Byron for
the top starting spot and an
all-Hendrick Motorsports
front row on Sunday.
“It’s awesome to be one-
two for Hendrick Motor-
sports,” said Byron, who
noted that he started sec-
ond last week at Texas, too,
alongside teammate Jim-
mie Johnson.
“I hate to be on the sec-
ond end of it, but it’s still
fun to start on the front
row. I feel like we’re mak-
ing huge strides in the
speed of our cars and it just
makes things easier at the
track.”
Leading off: Dodgers hitting
HRs, Red Sox skid, Reds drought
Associated Press
A look at what’s a hap-
pening around the majors
Saturday:
LA longballs
Cody Bellinger and the
Los Angeles Dodgers are on
a home run rampage, hitting
a whopping 21 in their first
eight games — that’s the sec-
ond-most in major league his-
tory in that span, only behind
the St. Louis Cardinals’ 23 in
2000. After launching a fran-
chise-record 235 homers last
year, the NL champion Dodg-
ers have connected in every
game so far this season.
Rockies righty Jon Gray
tries to keep the Dodgers
in the park when he starts
against them at Coors Field.
Bellinger leads the majors
with six home runs.
Skids
The defending World
Series champion Red Sox are
2-7 on their season-opening
11-game road trip. They got
pounded 15-8 Friday night in
Arizona — starting pitcher
Rick Porcello flung a water
cooler against the back wall
of the Boston dugout after
getting hit hard, and infielder
Eduardo Nunez came in to
pitch in the eighth inning and
gave up a home run to Alex
Avila. ... Joey Votto and the
Reds have been shut out in
three straight games. Their
scoreless string of 28 innings
is the longest for Cincinnati
since a 30-game drought in
2015. ... The Marlins have
dropped nine games in a row
at Atlanta.
Nice start
Padres rookie Chris Padd-
ack tries to duplicate his early
success when he starts at St.
Louis. In his major league
debut last weekend, the
23-year-old righty gave up
two hits and one run in five
innings against San Francisco.
Paddack will aim to slow
down Cardinals newcomer
Paul Goldschmidt, who has
homered five times in seven
games.
Check him
The Seattle Mariners will
see how second baseman Dee
Gordon is feeling, a day after
he left a game because of a
tight groin. Manager Scott
Servais isn’t sure whether
Gordon will be back in the
lineup in Chicago against the
White Sox.
Welcome
Hoping to boost a thin
starting rotation, the Orioles
have signed Dan Straily to a
$575,000, one-year contact.
The 30-year-old right-
hander was released March
25 by the Marlins. He was
15-15 in two seasons with the
Marlins.
Straily was limited to
23 starts last year, when he
went on the disabled list
twice because of forearm and
oblique strains.
Ryan Blaney qualified
third in a Ford for Team
Penske, followed by Joe
Gibbs Racing teammates
Erik Jones and Denny
Hamlin in a pair of Toyotas.
Blaney set a track record
in the second round of
qualifying, but in the third
round, when the starting
order is set, Elliott had the
faster car. He became the
eighth different driver to
win a pole through eight
qualifying sessions this
season as there has yet to
be a repeat pole-winner.
Hendrick Motorsports,
coming off one of the worst
seasons in its storied his-
tory, has won three poles
this season with Elliott,
Byron and Jimmie John-
son. But the highest finish
to date this season for the
four-car stable was Elliott
two weeks ago at Martins-
ville Speedway, where he
finished second.
Elliott led 49 laps at the
Virginia short track before
fading against winner Brad
Keselowski, but the show-
ing at Martinsville coupled
with the pole at Bristol has
Elliott in position to get his
first win of the season.
All seven races this year
have been won by driv-
ers from Joe Gibbs Rac-
ing (Toyota) and Team
Penske (Ford) as the Chev-
rolet teams are still playing
catch-up in the second-year
Camaro.
Rounding out the top 12
for Sunday were Aric Almi-
rola, Joey Logano, Clint
Bowyer, Paul Menard,
Johnson, Ryan Newman
and Keselowski. Eight of
the top 13 qualifying cars
AP Photo/Wade Payne
Driver Chase Elliott is seen before practice for a NASCAR Cup
Series auto race on Friday in Bristol, Tenn.
were Fords.
NASCAR sent a memo
to teams reminding them
of a new media policy that
requires every driver to visit
a media bullpen follow-
ing qualifying, and warned
fines can be issued to driv-
ers who skip the session or
are “verbally aggressive to
a NASCAR staff member
or media member.”
Under
the
mem-
ber conduct guidelines
in NASCAR’s rule book
it states a driver can be
fined between $10,000 and
$50,000 for various viola-
tions that include meeting
media obligations.