Rangers 5, White Sox 3: A quiet sweep

4:29 PM CDT on August 3, 2023

After Seby Zavala hit a solo shot in the eighth inning to end a 26-inning scoreless streak on Wednesday, the White Sox got their scoring out of the way early this afternoon, jumping on Max Scherzer for three runs in the first inning in his first start as a Texas Ranger.

Scherzer absorbed that 37-pitch inning to throw a quality start, while the Texas offense chipped away at Touki Touissant until a pair of solo shots in the fourth inning put them ahead for good. The Rangers sealed the sweep, the White Sox have lost four in a row, and who knows how long the slide will carry them.

The Sox were well-positioned to steal the finale when they loaded the bases four batters in on two bloop singles and a walk. Yasmani Grandal drew a walk to drive in one run, and Gavin Sheets improved his opposite-field batting average by shooting a high 0-2 fastball through the left side for two more.

Then the Sox managed to hit three singles without scoring a run in the second -- Tim Anderson's double-play ball erased the first one -- and that more or less set the tone for the remainder of the game. The Sox totaled just three other singles and zero walks over the remaining seven innings.

Toussaint once again fulfilled his duties in filling out a rotation after a fire sale, allowing four runs over 5⅓ innings. Some of it was bad luck (Travis Jankowski's muscled RBI double over third base in the second), some of it was Toussaint's fault (two walks setting up an Adolis García RBI double in the third), and some of it was the Rangers being good (solo shots by Mitch Garver and Marcus Semien in the fourth).

Toussaint dropped to 1-4 on the season, but he's getting innings that he wouldn't get elsewhere. This is the trade-off.

Bullet points:

*Aaron Bummer survived BummerLuck by turning a high chopper off the plate into a 1-3 just in time to keep a runner on third from scoring in the sixth. Yoán Moncada then swooped in and retired Nathaniel Lowe on a slow roller to end the seventh.

*Trayce Thompson went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts while starting for Luis Robert Jr. in center field. I'm still not sure why he's here.

*The three true outcomes don't lie.