Waiver claim Rogers lifts White Sox with walk-off HR vs. Mets

CHICAGO -- Jake Rogers has at least one hit with four teams this season, including two of them coming for the White Sox, the American League Central-leading group he joined on Aug. 14 in a waiver claim from the Red Sox.

None of those 20 previous hits come close in significance to his walk-off home run against Mets reliever Jefry Yan with two outs Friday at Rate Field, giving the White Sox a thrilling 6-4 victory on Elvis Night. In fact, that two-run, Statcast-estimated 401-foot shot might be one of the biggest hits in Rogers’ six-year career.

“For sure, it's a no-brainer,” Rogers said. “Just the game that it was a part of. Obviously, atmosphere and everything involved, that one's right up there at the top.”

“He's a pro, first of all. Has been great in the clubhouse,” White Sox manager Will Venable said of Rogers. “A guy that you get on board quickly because of his experience and his understanding of what it takes to call a Major League game and navigate some tough lineups. So he's been great. Fits right into the clubhouse and obviously coming through with the bat tonight.”

That blast from Rogers marked the 10th walk-off hit by the eighth different player for the White Sox (67-61) this season. The inning began with a walk drawn by Colson Montgomery, after Yan did his patented strikeout celebration on a 1-2 pitch called out of the zone.

It took a while for the White Sox to get going prior to Rogers’ heroics. In fact, for 15 innings before their comeback, dating back to the eighth inning of a victory Wednesday over the Cubs, the White Sox didn’t score a run.

Rate Field had gone quiet, a rare occurrence during this tremendous season for the South Siders. Even the Elvis impersonators had suspicious minds as to when the next White Sox run would arrive.

Then, the game moved to the sixth inning and the White Sox unloaded their frustration on Sean Manaea.

Munetaka Murakami walked with one out, winning an ABS overturn on a 2-2 called third strike. Miguel Vargas launched his 29th home run five pitches later, and Randal Grichuk followed with his 11th. Montgomery, not to be outdone, completed the trifecta with his 27th.

A 4-0 deficit morphed into a 4-4 deadlock in a matter of minutes, marking the second time the White Sox went back-to-back-to-back this season. When it last happened in Arizona on April 21, it was Murakami, Montgomery and Vargas.

“I just stuck with myself and kind of tried to calm myself down. It was getting electric out there, so I’m calming myself down,” Montgomery said. “The first pitch I thought was a really good swing and a tough pitch. I felt like if he threw it anywhere similar, I wasn’t going to miss it.”

“Just guys locked in,” Venable said. “The way that yesterday went, just kind of feel like the offense needed to score a run to get going. And obviously we saw that with the [Vargas] homer, and 'Grich' and Colson following him. So really good stuff by the guys. And just kind of opened the floodgates there.”

Sean Burke allowed four runs over six innings, striking out four without a walk, but the line score didn’t really tell the story. In the fourth, with one out and Jared Young on first, Luis Robert Jr. lofted a fly ball to center fielder Brenton Doyle, who lost the ball in the twilight, according to Venable, slipped and then couldn’t recover.

Robert, making his first appearance at Rate Field as a visiting player, was credited with a double, and Brett Baty followed with a two-run double for a 3-0 lead.

There were other chances for the White Sox earlier in the evening, but fly balls from Chase Meidroth, Murakami and Montgomery all fell a few feet from leaving the ballpark. That scenario changed in the sixth, and it clearly changed in the ninth as the White Sox shaved another notch off their magic number to clinch a postseason spot on the first career homer allowed by Yan and Rogers’ first walk-off long ball.

“You just have to learn from it,” Yan said through an interpreter. “You have to learn how to execute a little bit better.”

The White Sox have a 4 1/2-game lead over both the Guardians and Twins atop the AL Central, with 34 games left on Chicago's schedule.

“It's just super awesome. It was such an exciting moment,” said Rogers, who added he blacked out running the bases and barely remembers his postgame interview on CHSN. “It's been a long time, since the Minor Leagues, since something like that happened, and to do that on such a stage like this and with a good team, it was awesome. It was an incredible feeling and I wish I could bottle it up for sure."