Cal Baseball: Andrew Vaughn Is a Hit at the Plate And in Suddenly in Left Field, Too

White Sox rookie has 8 hits in his past four games, and made two great catches on Friday.

Andrew Vaughn has found his groove again at the plate.

And the former Cal slugger seems to be figuring things out in his new defensive role with the Chicago White Sox.

Vaughn went 2-for-4 with his eighth home run and the White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 8-2 on Friday night for their fifth straight victory.

It was the latest in a series of four straight successful games at the plate for the 23-year-old, who was taken No. 3 in the 2019 major league draft by the Sox.

Over those four games, Vaughn is batting .615 (8-for-13) with two home runs and five RBI. He has boosted his batting average 24 points to .246 during this stretch.

But Vaughn’s contributions Friday night weren’t limited to what he did with his bat.

Vaughn, who arrived at spring training this year hoping to earn a roster spot as a designated hitter, was almost immediately given a tryout in left field after Eloy Jimenez ruptured his left pectoral tendon in spring training, an injury expected to put him on the shelf for 5 to 6 months.

Vaughn played first base at Cal and had virtually no experience in the outfield, although the White Sox did left him play the position during an extended minor-league camp last year during the pandemic.

He has been pleasantly successful in the outfield, especially given that Gold Glove winner Luis Robert — his security blank next door in center field — was lost to injury in early May.

He is yet to make an error in 70 games in the outfield, but he’d done nothing to suggest what happened against the Tigers, when he made two key defensive plays to back up starting pitcher Lance Lynn.

In the fifth inning, Vaughn made a leaping catch at the wall to turn what could have been a three-run homer by Jonathan Schoop into a sacrifice fly. An inning later, he made a diving catch to rob Daz Cameron of an extra-base hit, which landed at No 3 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays.

"Luckily, Vaughn made two great plays for me,” Lynn said afterward.

Vaughn doesn’t pretend to be a polished outfielder at this point.

"I'm still learning out there, but I'm getting more comfortable," Vaughn said. "There's no way to practice diving catches, but I could tell I was going to be short, so I just tried to stretch out for it."

The White Sox continue to be plagued by injuries, but they keep winning with whomever manager Tony La Russa plugs into his lineup. Chicago entered play Saturday with a 49-32 record and a six-game lead in the AL Central.

Rookie Jake Burger got his first big league hit with a popup that was lost in the lights and wound up being a double. And fellow rookie Gavin Sheets slugged a three-run homer.

"We've got a lot of young guys up here who aren't just getting hits — they are winning games for us," La Russa said. "Vaughn gets a homer, Jake makes a perfect swing to get another hit, then Gavin hits a bomb.”

Vaughn spent time last year with both Burger and Sheets in the minors.

“It’s pretty special,” Vaughn said of getting the chance to play alongside his fellow rookies. “Guys I’ve come up with and been close with, it’s really cool to say the least.”

The White Sox have been content to ride out Vaughn’s ups and downs at the plate this season While he’s hot now, he was coming off a 1-for-16 stretch in the team’s six previous games.

Over seven games in April, Vaughn batted .409. Then he cooled for a couple weeks before an eight-game stretch where he batted .320 with a pair of homers.

He struggled through the first 21 games in June batting just .200. Beginning Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins, Vaughn has put together four straight games with two hits in each for the first time in his young career.

And to top things off, he’s getting time on SportsCenter for his glove work.

Cover photo of Andrew Vaughn making a diving catch by Tim Fuller, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo