Jimenez homers to back Crochet as White Sox beat Cardinals 5-1

ST. LOUIS (AP) Eloy Jimenez homered and Garrett Crochet tossed six effective innings to help the Chicago White Sox to a 5-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.

Chicago had lost 14 of its first 16 road games this season, Paul DeJong added a run-scoring double for the White Sox, who won their first road series of the season. He spent seven seasons in St. Louis from 2017-2023.

Willson Contreras homered for St. Louis, which has lost four of five.

Jimenez hit his fourth of the season off reliever Giovanny Gallegos (2-1) to snap a 1-1 tie leading off the seventh inning. The drive kick-started a four-run outburst.

“We’ve had a tough start at the beginning, but right now we’ve been playing better baseball,” Jimenez said. “Now, we’re showing what we can do.”

Crochet (2-4) allowed one run on three hits. He had given up 16 earned runs in 16 2/3 innings over his previous four starts. He struck out six and did not walk a batter.

“My slider shape was back,” Crochet said. “Today, I was able to compete in the zone with my heater. I was getting it away, getting it up and in. That helped them, not sit on one pitch.”

Crotchet got hit on the ankle by a line drive off the bat on Lars Nootbaar in the third inning. He shook it off and after a couple warmup tosses, he was good to go.

“His performance today was gutty,” Chicago manager Pedro Grifol said. “He got smoked on that line drive. For him to stay in, and do what he did and finish off the way he finished off, was tremendous,”

Crotchet, who missed the entire 2022 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, has 53 strikeouts on the season and is the first Chicago pitcher to pass the 50-strikeout mark over his first eight starts.

“Let’s keep it rolling,” Crochet said.

Bryan Ramos recorded his first RBI with a sacrifice fly in the second in his first major league at-bat. He added a single in the big seventh inning.

DeJong, Robbie Grossman and Gavin Sheets had two hits each for the White Sox.

St. Louis fell to 5-14 in day games this season.

The Cardinals dropped to a season-low four games below .500 at 15-19.

“You’ve got to keep working,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said. “The bottom line. I know you don’t want to hear it, but that’s all we can do is continue to work.”

TRAINER’S ROOM:

Chicago: Placed INF Danny Mendick on the 10-day injury list due to lower back tightness. The move is retroactive to to Thursday.

St. Louis: OF Dylan Carlson made his first start of the year after suffering a shoulder strain late in spring training.

UP NEXT

White Sox: Have yet to announce a starter for the first of a three game series Monday night in Tampa.

Cardinals: RHP Kyle Gibson (2-2, 3.79) will face New York Mets LHP Sean Manaea (1-1, 3.07) in the first of a three-game series in St. Louis. Gibson struck out a season-high nine over seven innings in a 2-1 win over Detroit on Tuesday.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB