Tristan Peters belts 11th home run in win Tuesday

Peters was a surprise AL All-Star, but he still had just seven homers in 123 games until this incredible surge. Tonight’s homer was a 362-foot shot off Robby Ahlstrom in the fifth. He’s raised his OPS from .751 to .821 since Saturday.

Antonacci and Montgomery take a seat with lefty MacKenzie Gore toeing the rubber for Texas in this one. Luisangel Acuña is at shortstop with Tristan Peters in left field. The 23-year-old rookie will continue to cede the occasional start against a southpaw for the final months of the year. It’ll be Miguel Vargas moving up to the leadoff spot in a strange-looking lineup from Chicago manager Will Venable.

A jumping A.J. Ewing had a shot at robbing the homer to center, but he came up a little short. Peters, who struggled mightily over the first four weeks of the second half, made very impressive contact with a 96-mph fastball on the outer edge to end the game with the White Sox’s second walkoff homer of the series. Peters also homered Saturday and is 11-for-31 with three homers and just three strikeouts in his last 10 games.

The switch-hitting 23-year-old outfielder has been struggling at the plate in recent weeks, hitting just .192/.306/.274 with one homer, 10 RBI and a 23/11 K/BB ratio over 85 plate appearances in his last 20 games, so perhaps giving him a day off to clear his head is a good idea. Tristan Peters will slide over and cover right field while Brenton Doyle draws a start in center and will bat sixth for the White Sox against Mets’ left-hander Sean Manaea.

Fernando Cruz got a huge double play ball in the 10th to send the game to the 11th, but he couldn’t come up big again after getting no lead to work with. Munetaka Murakami was intentionally walked to start the inning. Cruz struck out Miguel Vargas, but then Sam Antonacci collected an infield single. Cruz bounced back to strike out Colson Montgomery after falling behind 3-0, but he then walked Peters on four pitches. Peters, a very surprising AL All-Star, didn’t start the game against lefty Ryan Weathers, but he was in his second plate appearances off the bench. He’s hitting .095/.188/.119 in 48 plate appearances since the break.

Randal Grichuk will start in left field and bat fourth, while Everson Pereira will start in center field and bat sixth. Both Antonacci and Tristan Peters will head to the bench, and both players seem to be falling into strong-side platoons. It makes some sense since Antonacci has hit .200/.288/.231 in 74 plate appearances against lefties this season.

Peters gets the call to Philadelphia alongside teammate Munetaka Murakami for next week’s Midsummer Classic as a replacement for an injured Nick Kurtz (thumb). The unheralded 26-year-old hit for the cycle during Friday’s blowout win over the Athletics and has been an unexpected revelation for the upstart White Sox, slashing .303/.357/.484 with six homers and five steals in 89 games. This is his first career All-Star Game selection. It comes just a few years after Peters played for the Savannah Bananas back in 2021. He’ll add some much-needed flair to the All-Star Game for the American League.

It turns out hitting for the cycle wasn’t enough to get Peters back on the lineup card to face tough rookie southpaw Gage Jump on Saturday afternoon. The 26-year-old delivered an electrifying four-hit performance during Friday’s blowout win where he tripled and homered in the same inning to complete the cycle. It’ll be Junior Perez getting the nod in center field to open the contest.

Peters was at the heart of this White Sox blowout win over the Athletics. First, he contributed a run-scoring single during their four-run outburst against Aaron Civale. Then, he helped break it open with a two-run home run as they poured it on in the seventh inning. The White Sox managed to bat around in that inning and Peters came to the plate next needing a triple to complete the cycle. He yanked a ball down the first base line, got on his horse, and slid into third safely as the crowd roared. That was the first cycle by a White Sox player since José Abreu – yes, really – in 2017. This is a fantastic exclamation point on a stellar first half for Peters’ with a .303/.357/.484 slash-line to go along with six home runs and five stolen bases.

Peters got a middle-middle fastball on the second pitch of his third at-bat and yanked it 108.5-mph just fair down the right field line. It was only his third homer in 194 plate appearances, but he’s been a nice fit for the White Sox against right-handers while batting .299/.358/.460 to date.