Tim Anderson came up in a big spot Sunday against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
Facing flamethrower Jhoan Duran with two outs, Zach Remillard on third and the game tied in the 10th, Anderson lined a run-scoring double to the gap in right-center.
While the Chicago White Sox couldn’t hold on, losing in 12 innings, the hit was signature Anderson.
The shortstop has had a productive second half, hitting .366 with four RBIs in his last 10 games.
“Just feeling more like myself and trying to get back to what I normally do,” Anderson said Tuesday.
He went 1-for-4 with a run in Tuesday’s 7-3 loss to the Cubs in the City Series at Guaranteed Rate Field.
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Anderson has six multihit games since the All-Star break and nine in his last 20 games.
“His all-around game has been better,” manager Pedro Grifol said Friday in Minneapolis. “The ball is jumping off his bat. He’s been playing really good defense, consistent. Slowing the game down. Runs the bases really well.
“He’s Tim Anderson. He’s human. He had a little rut there where we can talk about why he had that. I happen to think (it was) injury-related. But he’s playing good baseball right now.”
Anderson is slashing .241/.281/.283 this season with 11 doubles, one triple, 17 RBIs and 10 stolen bases in 77 games.
He doesn’t have a home run but is showing signs of being the hitter who batted at least .300 for four straight seasons — including a batting title in 2019.
“It’s just a process of learning,” Anderson said. “I’ve been learning a lot throughout this struggle. Just give it time. I can’t change it all in one game, but over the course of the rest of the season you could.”
During the funk, many wondered if the Sox would move Anderson out of the No. 2 spot in the batting order. Grifol stuck with him.
“That’s his job, not mine,” Anderson said. “At the end of the day, all I can do is show up and play.”
Anderson had two two-hit games July 14-16 in Atlanta. He had three hits, one RBI and scored twice in the series opener against the New York Mets on July 18 at Citi Field. He had two more hits in the series finale July 20.
And he had an RBI single Friday, two hits and a run Saturday — when he raced home as part of a double steal — and two hits with one RBI Sunday against the Twins.
Even with the offense, the Sox lost six of nine on the trip to fall 19 games under .500.
“It’s life,” Anderson said of the team’s struggles. “Life is life and things happen. You try not to think about it too much. But we are here.”
Anderson is here, but his name has been mentioned in trade speculation. His approach when it comes to the trade deadline has been “just play.”
“I don’t really worry about anything,” he said. “Control what I can control and whatever happens is going to happen anyway.
“It’s a business. That’s the part you look at. Just roll with it. Just play and see what happens.”