Zach Remillard leads the Chicago White Sox to a win in his major-league debut – The Denver Post

Zach Remillard received some words of wisdom from reliever Joe Kelly before making his major-league debut.

“There’s two options: You either do good or you do bad,” Remillard said Kelly told him. “He just kept it simple. For some reason, that calmed me down.”

Remillard had a debut to remember, going 3-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs while leading the Chicago White Sox to a 4-3 victory against the Seattle Mariners in 11 innings in front of a sellout crowd of 45,188 on Saturday

at T-Mobile Park.

He tied the game with an RBI single in the ninth and put the Sox ahead with a two-out hit in the 11th.

“I don’t think you can fully put it into words,” Remillard said. “Where this journey started and what you dream of is exactly what happened today.”

Manager Pedro Grifol called it “the best win of the year for us.”

“This was a resilient, gutsy win,” he said.

Grifol said he was not surprised with Remillard’s day.

“He’s a winner, he’s a baseball player, I saw it all spring,” Grifol said. “And he didn’t disappoint today.”

Remillard, 29, joined the Sox on Thursday from Triple-A Charlotte after the team placed Yoán Moncada on the injured list. Remillard had been in the Sox system since 2016, when the team selected him in the 10th round of the draft.

“There’s something to be said about somebody who has played baseball as long as he has and has been in the minor leagues for a while and gets an opportunity to do this,” Grifol said. “Just that desire, that will, that heart to be a big-leaguer.

“The makeup like that will take you a long way.”

Remillard entered to play second base after shortstop Tim Anderson exited in the fourth with right shoulder soreness.

“I think he did it pregame, out there stretching and throwing,” Grifol said. “He toughed it out for three innings. Just kept getting tighter and tighter. The evaluations are good. We’ll see how he wakes up tomorrow.”

Elvis Andrus moved to shortstop and Remillard took over at second, batting second in the lineup.

He hit behind Andrew Benintendi, who flipped spots in the order with Anderson as part of a tweak designed to have more traffic on the bases for the heart of the order.

Benintendi delivered with four hits and a walk while scoring once. He was on base all six times, reaching in the first on a fielding error.

“Leading off you want to get on base and create havoc,” Benintendi said. “It’s a good day.”

The same can be said for the Sox bullpen, with relievers Gregory Santos, Keynan Middleton, Aaron Bummer and Jesse Scholtens combining for six no-hit innings. Bummer got the win with Scholtens earning his first big-league save.

“These guys are not only picking innings, they’re picking up leverage innings,” Grifol said. “We don’t play nonleverage games. It’s every single day. Every single pitch these guys are throwing feels like it’s a leverage pitch.

“These guys do it every single day. I’m proud of them, I’m impressed by them. They are part of something special.”

Starter Lucas Giolito (two earned runs on eight hits in five innings) and the relievers kept it close.

And Remillard came through in the clutch.

“Probably one of the better debuts I’ve ever seen, if not the best,” Benintendi said. “Coming in midgame and making an impact in every single at-bat. Great job by him.”

He walked in the first plate appearance in the fifth and reached on a bunt single in the seventh for his first big-league hit.

Andrus scored on Remillard’s one-out single to left-center against Paul Sewald to tie the game in the ninth.

Remillard singled to right-center against Tayler Saucedo, bringing in Andrus with the go-ahead run.

“I got something up and away and was able to serve it into right field for the base hit,” Remillard said of the 11th-inning single.

He joined some rare lists with his spectacular debut.

He is the seventh player in team history with three-plus hits in his MLB debut and the first since Craig Wilson on Sept. 5, 1998, against the New York Yankees.

He is the second Sox player in team history with three-plus hits and a walk in his MLB debut, joining Johnny Callison on Sept. 9, 1958, against the Red Sox.

And he’s the second player in MLB history with three-plus hits and a walk off the bench in an MLB debut, joining Ernie White for the St. Louis Cardinals on May 9, 1940, against the Philadelphia Phillies.

“The amount of gratitude I have and how exciting it is to have my family here, it’s a moment I will never forget for the rest of my life,” Remillard said.

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