White Sox bullpen hopes its fortunes have changed in win over Mets

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NEW YORK — David Robertson may call his next charitable endeavor No Socks For Wins.

Looking to change his and the bullpen’s fortunes on Tuesday, the White Sox closer wore his pant legs all the way down in a scoreless inning to close out a 6-4 victory over the New York Mets at Citi Field — one that snapped a seven-game losing streak.

Robertson, Zach Putnam, Dan Jennings and Nate Jones combined for four scoreless innings to lead the White Sox, who rallied from four runs down, to their first victory since the opening game of a May 23 doubleheader. In between, the White Sox bullpen blew three games late in Kansas City, including allowing a seven-spot in the ninth inning Saturday.

Robertson, who routinely wears his pants hiked up to expose his stirrups, runs a foundation with his wife Erin for tornado victims called High Socks For Hope. But after he allowed six runs Saturday, he wanted to mix things up a bit. Robertson said he also wore a different, lighter jersey and shaved his beard in between.

“Listen, we’re mixing it up,” Robertson said. “We needed a win, so I went with them down. I wore a different jersey. It felt uncomfortable, but it worked.”

The White Sox need more performances like this from the bullpen if they want to rediscover a formula that led them to a 23-10 record.

The unit recorded a 1.69 ERA in April as they stormed out in front of the American League Central. But that same group has struggled for the past three weeks with the low point coming in Kansas City when they collectively allowed 14 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. The bullpen entered Tuesday 1-7 with a 4.85 ERA in May. Included in those totals are losses in games in which the White Sox lead by four, five and six runs.

“It was good to see the bullpen back to their old selves,” said starter Mat Latos, who allowed four runs (two earned) in five innings.”

Latos retired eight of the last 10 he faced before he gave way to Putnam, who struck out Asdrubal Cabrera with two aboard to end the sixth inning and keep the White Sox down a run. Jennings, who allowed a run in Friday’s loss, pitched around a single in a scoreless seventh. He earned the victory when the White Sox rallied for three runs in the eighth.

Jones, who lost after he allowed three runs in Sunday’s loss, pitched around a two-out single in the eighth to get it to Robertson. Robertson struck out Cabrera and Michael Conforto and retired Yoenis Cespedes on a fly out to right.

The bullpen also pitched a scoreless inning in Monday’s loss.

“You’re starting to piece that back together as rough as it has been the last week for those guys at the end,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “It was a nice job by those guys and you’ve got to stick with them.”

Only Robertson — who has 13 saves in 15 tries — knows if he’ll stick with the low pant legs. But at least for one night they worked.

“It’s definitely a much better feeling than we’ve had the last few days,” Robertson said. “Knowing that we’re going to get the final out and get a win, it feels nice. We’ve been playing really hard, but things just haven’t worked out. We hit a little bump in the road, but hopefully today’s a start toward getting us back on track.”

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