Sox offense, bullpen suffer jet lag in 6-1 setback
Just like the rest of us, the White Sox had to get up Monday and go to work, and just like most of us, they played with some lethargy after what was perhaps an overly challenging weekend, losing a quiet 6-1 loss to the Mariners Monday night to open a six-game West Coast swing. That drops them to 24-23 on the season, and two games behind the Guardians in the AL Central after their 8-2 win earlier in the evening.
The Sox had a chance to strike early, when Sam Antonacci singled to lead off the game against Bryan Woo. Munetaka Murakami followed up with a relatively easy walk that could have put some serious early pressure on the Seattle ace. Unfortunately, Antonacci had already gotten a little greedy and thwarted the potential rally with a wild one on the bases as Murakami struck out. The bats remained silent for the rest of the inning.
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On the other side of the ball, the hope was that Noah Schultz could set the tone early on. Although he didn’t make many errors, Julio Rodríguez is not the type of hitter to miss an error. So it only took two batters in the bottom of the first inning for the Sox to fall behind, as the All-Star threw a sinker and drove it over the right-center field fence to take a 1-0 lead.
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Things got a little spicier in the third inning, when two officiating calls made Antonacci’s night worse, helping put a second point on the board for the Seamen and Will Venable in the locker room.
First, there was a called down double play late in the inning when what initially appeared to be a smart catch by Antonacci was instead ruled a fly catch, keeping the inning alive long enough for Randy Arozarena to blast a double down the left field line. It then looked like a solid relay from Tristan Peters to Miguel Vargas to Drew Romo would nevertheless win the day, until the referees again declared runner Jhonny Pereda safe based on Antonacci’s interference earlier in the play. The resulting brouhaha earned Will Venable his first ejection of the season and his fourth as manager of the Pale Hose.
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Schultz managed to get out of the inning without further damage, and the Sox defense found some redemption, once again thanks to Peters. In my eyes, the former Savannah Banana’s defensive acumen and ability to execute offensive fundamentals outweighs his lack of pop and puts him in a good position to survive the outfield roster crisis likely to occur once some combination of Everson Pereira, Jacob Gonzalez and Braden Montgomery is called up to the majors.
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Despite a few scattered hitting errors, Schultz managed to avoid walks with much more dexterity than in previous starts.
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Schultz used his sinker extensively on his four-seamer, which led to fewer whiffs than we’d like to see, but he nonetheless put away hitters when he needed to. Promisingly, he used changeups to draw late-inning whiffs from right-handed hitters in the fourth and fifth innings, which will be key to deepening games against good lineups in the future. Schultz threw 56 of his 91 pitches for strikes (a solid, if not ideal, 61%), but despite hitting his way to a number of three-pitch counts, he didn’t give up in any of them, making this the first zero start of his young career.
Unfortunately, Woo went through the Sox lineup like it was balsa wood, ultimately scattering three hits in six close innings. The Sox had another real opportunity to reach the 26-year-old when Antonacci and Murakami reached base again to start the third inning. It was no use – Woo completely locked in the middle of the threat, retiring the next 11 batters to close out his night. Very few of those 11 trips with the plate resulted in anything close to a threat.
Schultz was chased out of the game in the sixth inning, when Arozarena led off the inning with a double on a catchable fly that Luisangel Acuña turned around on, and promptly scored two batters later on a ripped single by Josh Naylor, who continued his now comically long vendetta against the Sox with a 3-for-4 night. I have a feeling Acuña, who still has minor league options, could be one of those who survived Peters when the roster crisis hits. The same is probably true for Jarred Kelenic, who had a hat trick of punches in the middle of an 0-for-4 performance.
Meanwhile, it took Peters 130 plate appearances to land his first big fly on The Show, but only three more to achieve his second. When he placed the head of his bat in front against a grooved sinker from Eduard Bazardo, Peters gave the Sox their first scratch of the evening with a big 366-foot fly to right.
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As momentum continued to shift in Chicago’s favor when Drew Romo completed his only hit of the night in the outfield and Chase Meidroth drew a walk in place of Acuña, he died on the bat of Randal Grichuk, who hit for Antonacci and ended the inning with a weak pitch.
On a more positive note, Schultz’s newfound avoidance seemed to have rubbed off on Jordan Hicks, who relieved Brandon Eisert for half of the seventh. Hicks had a relatively smooth inning, allowing just one pass but avoiding any free passes after Friday’s four-walk disaster against the Cubs.
More opportunities for the Sox offense materialized and were not capitalized on. Murakami reached base for the third time in the eighth inning on an infield single and moved to second on a wild pitch, but none of Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery or pinch-hitter Edgar Quero could do anything with high-octane left-hander José A. Ferrer, and hope faded again.
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For perhaps the first time in Schultz’s big league career, he wasn’t the freshest top prospect on the field, as Seattle third baseman Colt Emerson received a reminder from fans in his second major league game. That’s because he picked up his first big league hit, and it turned out to be a three-run bomb against Trevor Richards with two outs in the eighth that pretty much put the game away. Seattle fans are hoping this will be the first of many for the young infielder, who several months ago signed a record eight-year, $95 million extension with the Mariners — the largest pre-contract ever.
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Despite a five-point lead, closer Andrés Muñoz was already free and ready to start the ninth inning. Muñoz has struggled uncharacteristically this season, but with a 5.29 ERA or not, he was in his best form against the White Sox, easily shutting out the bottom of their lineup to preserve a 6-1 win for the Mariners.
After how the weekend went, it’s hard to feel too bad about ditching a sleepy Monday night game to open a West Coast road trip. The bullpen is completely depleted. Not every game can be a heroic comeback; The encouraging growth and tenacity we’ve seen in Schultz is probably more important than the individual wins and losses over the 25 or so starts we’ll ideally see from him this summer.
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Tomorrow is a new day, and one that will see Anthony Kay take the hill against Bryce Miller, who is making his second start of the year after missing much of the spring with an oblique strain. The first pitch is at 8:40 p.m. CT, and we’ll see you there!
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