Vaughn gives ailing lineup a needed boost

TORONTO -- There’s a lot amiss about the currently depleted White Sox lineup, but a much-needed jolt of energy has surged from the bat of Andrew Vaughn.

With Tim Anderson officially landing on the 10-day IL, the White Sox took the field at Rogers Centre sporting an All-Star-sized hole at the very top of their batting order, along with several other key absences.

Vaughn shouldered the responsibility, delivering a four-hit, two-RBI outing in Chicago’s 6-5 loss to the Blue Jays on Tuesday.

“Vaughn was huge,” said White Sox manager Tony La Russa. “That’s where he’s been coming ever since the season started.”

The White Sox are in particular need of that consistency, once again falling under .500 and five games back of the Twins in the AL Central.

Without Anderson, Chicago is missing its “ignitor,” La Russa stated before Tuesday’s game. Anderson was batting .356 with an .896 OPS, five home runs, 19 RBIs and eight stolen bases before his injury.

Replacing that kind of production would be nearly impossible. But reproducing Anderson’s role as an offensive catalyst, it turns out, was not.

Vaughn showed up early, stunning Toronto starter Kevin Gausman with a solo home run in the first inning. The White Sox No. 2 batter sent an 0-2 splitter 405 feet to center field to give Chicago an early lead. He doubled in his next at-bat, an 11-pitch faceoff against Gausman, who is in the midst of a career year.

“You have to give them credit sometimes,” said Gausman, Tuesday’s winning pitcher. “[Vaughn] had a hell of a day against me today. He was kind of my kryptonite. … He's a young kid that I think has a bright future.”

It was Vaughn’s first career four-hit game. The two runs driven in brought his RBI total to a team-leading 22 and the 24-year-old’s sixth homer of the season now has him tied atop the White Sox leaderboard alongside Luis Robert.

All of it from a homegrown guy who’d never played above High-A prior to making the big league team last year. It made the extended loss of Anderson just a little bit more palatable.

“It’s baseball, there’s going to be injuries,” said Vaughn. “But it’s tough when we lose three or four of our best bats in the lineup. So, we all just have to step up and do our thing.”

Anderson was hardly the only player the White Sox were missing. Robert was activated from the COVID-19 IL, but remained sidelined while still dealing with illness-related fatigue. Yoán Moncada, Leury García and AJ Pollock were also unavailable.

Still, Chicago put up what La Russa described as “one of the best offensive nights we’ve had,” and could very well have come away with the win had starter Lucas Giolito gotten out of the fifth inning.

“I was one or two good pitches away from being out of it,” said Giolito, who exited with eight hits, eight strikeouts and six earned runs over 4 2/3 innings. “The loss tonight is fully my responsibility, considering the team put up runs on a really, really good pitcher on the other side and gave me the lead. And in the fifth inning I just gave it up.”

Giolito struck out the first batter of the frame, then gave up a bloop single on a George Springer check-swing, followed by a Bo Bichette ground-rule double. He struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. next and brought Teoscar Hernández to a 1-1 count before hanging a slider up in the zone that the Blue Jays' hitter drove hard for his second double of the night, scoring Springer and Bichette and giving Toronto a 4-3 lead.

Two more runs would score before Giolito was pulled. Alejandro Kirk had a pair of homers off the right-hander, who ended the month of May on a low note after a dominant stretch.

“Baseball’s going to do that, it’ll break your heart sometimes,” said Vaughn. “That’s why we play 162 [games], so we can get up the next day and do it again.”

Vaughn likely won’t be the hero every single night in the absence of stars like Anderson and Robert. But the White Sox 13 hits and five runs show that he may not have to be. As this team looks for some offensive consistency, the role of “ignitor” may be up for grabs for a while.

“You’re not watching if you don’t see how hard the team played,” said La Russa. “We didn’t miss anybody. I give credit to the guys who played. Great at-bats through nine innings. … We had a great chance to win.”