The White Sox entered tonight 0-8 in the first game of series this year, having been shut out six times and outscored 51-2.
The Rays, who came to Chicago treading water at .500 and dealing with RISP issues and bullpen troubles, hoped to get in on the same kind of action that helped the Twins right the ship with four straight wins earlier this week.
Instead? Regression. Sweet regression. The White Sox never trailed. In fact, they tacked on. They hit two homers without allowing one. Martín Maldonado hit one of those homers. Chris Flexen pitched five shutout innings. The bullpen ...
... OK, the White Sox bullpen was hard to watch, but the offense kept tacking on against that leaky Tampa Bay relief corps, taking those late-inning threats to heart. The White Sox ended their seven-game losing streak as a result.
Maldonado's unlikely blast provided the breathing room. The White Sox's 2-0 lead almost disappeared in the top of the sixth when Chris Flexen, after five shutout innings, walked the first two batters. Dominic Leone put out the fire with a strikeout, popout and groundout.
In the bottom of the frame, Mendick singled with one out, followed by an infield single by Paul DeJong. Up came Maldonado, whose hitless streak extended to 28 at-bats, including a double play in his previous at-bat. Kevin Cash probably thought he could steal an out with Zach Eflin before going to the bullpen, but he left an 0-2 sinker over the heart of the zone, and Maldonado hit a no-doubter 401 feet out to left for a three-run shot and a 5-0 lead.
The White Sox bullpen spent the rest of the night testing that cushion, but the offense responded each time.
In the seventh, Deivi García gave up a windswept RBI double that eluded Robbie Grossman on the right-field warning track, and then Jordan Leasure replaced him with two outs and walked consecutive batters to bring in another run. Yet the White Sox offense restored the five-run lead because Eloy Jiménez followed a Grossman walk with a 410-foot blast off Erasmo Ramírez.
In the eighth, Michael Kopech brought the tying run to the plate after spraying his fastball all over the place, but Randy Arozarena was well late on a first-pitch fastball, and Kopech never let up on the heat. He recorded a pretty straightforward strikeout, and it wasn't clear that Arozarena would've timed him up with 10 more chances.
Either way, the Rays repaid the runs with help from the Rays defense. The White Sox loaded the bases with a pair of singles around a Niko Goodrum error. Rafael Ortega cashed in one run with a sac fly, and #WILDPITCHOFFENSE brought home another, which made Tanner Banks' three-hit, one-run ninth irrelevant.
Sloppy Tampa Bay defense bookended the game, as Tommy Pham scored the game's first run after reaching on a throwing error. He moved to third on a pair of walks, and an Andrew Vaughn sac fly brought him home.
An inning later, the White Sox took a more direct path to a run, as Paul DeJong followed a Mendick double with a single for a 2-0 lead.
Bullet points:
*Pham went 2-for-5 with that run scored from the No. 2 spot in the lineup in his White Sox debut.
*Ortega also made his White Sox debut as a defensive replacement for Grossman.
*Vaughn was the only starter who failed to reach base, but he did have the sac fly. Andrew Benintendi was the only starter who failed to reach base twice, but he did single.
*Benintendi also made somebody pay for running on his arm. He notched an outfield assist by catching Isaac Parades at second base on an ill-advised attempt to stretch a single into a double in the ninth inning. The Rays looked more like the White Sox than the White Sox tonight.
