Melky Cabrera didn’t fool anyone on Friday night, unlike his moment Thursday when he robbed Aaron Judge’s homer late in the game and pretended like it went over the wall.
His walk-off double down the right field line was a sure thing, and it gave the White Sox a big 8-7 win over the Texas Rangers at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“We have been playing good baseball,” Cabrera said through a translator. “The things have been going our way. That’s good. We are just trying to win games. That’s all we are trying to do.”
Fresh off a game where he made two outstanding defensive plays, the first by throwing out Ronald Torreyes at second base and the second by robbing Judge of a homer, Cabrera shined again on Friday night.
This time, it was on offense.
Cabrera opened the eighth inning with a single and eventually came around to score to trim the White Sox deficit to 7-5. And in the bottom of the ninth, Cabrera capped off the victory by hitting yet another walk-off.
Since 2009, Cabrera has the most walk-off plate appearances with 14, according to CSN stats guru Chris Kamka. Albert Pujols, Joey Votto and Andre Ethier are tied with 11.
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“It doesn’t surprise me based on his at-bats,” said manager Rick Renteria. “He gives you great at-bats in most situations. We’ve been here firsthand watching a lot of them. He’s a professional hitter who in certain situations just kind of seems to rise to the occasion. That was just another example of it.”
The White Sox have been part of many games this season where their rallies have fallen short, but they found a way to pull it out on Friday and Renteria is encouraged by his team continuing to battle to the very end.
“They don’t quit,” Renteria said. “They’ve never quit all season long regardless of the circumstance or the situation. We’ve probably had a handful of games that I thought were very poorly played or just out of character for them but they don’t quit. They give you a good chance every single time they go out there and play.”