TORONTO (AP) — José Berríos struck out a season-high nine over seven innings, Danny Jansen homered twice and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the White Sox 7-0 Tuesday night, extending Chicago’s losing streak to six.
Berríos (2-3) allowed four hits — all singles — and walked one in his second straight seven-inning outing.
“He’s a confident dude right now and he’s just executing,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.
Berríos had lost three of his previous four starts against the White Sox but beat them Tuesday for the first time since September 2020. He’s made 23 starts against Chicago, his most against any opponent.
“That team has been killing me lately,” Berríos said. “Tonight, finally, I stopped my bad streak against them.”
Berríos struck out the side in the first and didn’t allow a runner to reach scoring position until Elvis Andrus advanced from first to third on Andrew Benitendi’s two-out single in the sixth. Eloy Jiménez took a called third strike.
“He had a three-pitch mix today and kept us off balance all game long,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said of Berríos.
Nate Pearson and Anthony Bass finished with hitless relief as the Blue Jays won for the 14th time in 20 games.
Kevin Kiermaier hit a two-run triple, and George Springer had three hits and drove in a run for Toronto.
Chicago has lost 11 of 13 and 14 of 17. The White Sox were blanked for the second time this season and have three runs and 10 hits in their last three games.
“It hurts to lose a major league game, and it hurts to lose six in a row,” Grifol said. “There’s a lot of care in here. People care about winning. We’ve just got to work, man. We’ve got to continue to work. We can’t let this thing break us, and it won’t.”
Right-hander Mike Clevinger also said the White Sox aren’t letting losing get them down.
“No one is coming to the field pouting,” Clevinger said. “Everyone is ready to win every time they show up. Everyone is showing up as the same guy, and that’s what you need to see. It’s still early and we’ve still got a long way to go.”
Clevinger (2-2) allowed a season-high six runs and seven hits in five innings. All three batters he walked came around to score.
“Not his sharpest outing,” Grifol said. “Four of the five innings he pitched, the leadoff hitter got on.”
Jansen went 3 for 4 and scored three runs. He flied out in his final at-bat.
Jansen hit a three-run homer in the second and added a solo drive in the sixth off left-hander Tanner Banks for his fifth career multi-homer game. Jansen has three home runs this season.
TRAINER’S ROOM
White Sox: Seby Zavala replaced Yasmani Grandal at C in the bottom of the seventh after Grandal struck out in the top half. Grifol said Grandal departed because of a sore lower back but said it wasn’t serious. “We think he’s going to be all right but we’ll see how he comes in tomorrow,” Grifol said. … Grifol said 3B Yoán Moncada (sore lower back) is making “significant improvements” but remains at least a week or two away from returning.
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
RF Jiménez put his hands on his hips and exchanged words with CF Luis Robert in the fourth after Robert cut in front of Jiménez to make a catch for the second time in the game.
NEED FOR SPEED
Berríos fanned Jiménez with a 97.4 mph pitch to end the first. It was the sixth-fastest pitch of his career and his fastest since a 97.8 mph fastball on Sept. 28, 2018, also against Chicago.
UP NEXT
RHP Michael Kopech (0-2, 6.97) starts Wednesday’s series finale against Blue Jays LHP Yusei Kikuchi (3-0, 3.80). Kopech has a 20.77 ERA in four games against Toronto, allowing 10 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Ian Harrison, The Associated Press
