After playing five consecutive nail-biters, the White Sox finally could relax a little with their first low-leverage game of the week.
Unfortunately, a team that's now 18-53 typically only has one way to get one of those.
The Diamondbacks outplayed the Sox in just about every regard, outhitting, outpitching and outfielding. Ryne Nelson came into this game with a 5.96 ERA and threw six innings of one-run ball. Eugenio Suárez came into this game with a .576 OPS and homered, along with two walks. Tucker Barnhart came into this game with one RBI and doubled his season total with one swing.
Meanwhile, Andrew Benintendi, Paul DeJong and Nicky Lopez all had two-hit nights while hitting fifth, sixth and seventh in the order, but it only accounted for one run. That came in the second inning, when Lopez followed up a Benintendi walk and a DeJong single with a line drive to left that gave the Sox a 1-0 lead
That margin didn't survive the bottom of the second.
Once Tommy Pham couldn't hold onto a foul ball after slamming into the side wall in right field in a chance to steal a second out for Chris Flexen, the slow slide began in earnest. Randal Grichuk took advantage of his second life with a double left of center to put runners on second and third, a walk to Suárez loaded the bases, and Barnhart's single on a thigh-high 91 mph four-seamer scored two, giving Arizona a lead it wouldn't relinquish.
In the third, Joc Pederson got a four-step jump on Flexen for an easy steal, and Korey Lee's attempt to cut him down wound up in center field. Pederson advanced to third, and although Flexen struck out Christian Walker to approach the possibility of stranding the runner, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. shot a single through the middle making it 3-1.
An inning later, Flexen gave up a 3-0 homer to Suárez, then consecutive singles. Paul DeJong was able to steal an out by cutting Luis Robert Jr.'s throw to third and catching Gerardo Perdomo between first and second. The gift out didn't help, because Corbin Carroll's chopper deflected off the mitt of a leaping Andrew Vaughn to make it 5-1. A subsequent walk ended Flexen's night, but Michael Soroka's attempt to pick off Corbin bounced off the runner himself into center field, setting up another run-scoring bouncer for Pederson and a 6-1 lead.
Pederson then made it 7-1 in his next trip, hitting a homer that Soroka briefly appeared to celebrate.
Soroka served his main purpose of getting the game to the eighth, and Jared Shuster handled that inning without issue to spare whatever constitutes the high-leverage sector of the bullpen for an evening.
Bullet points:
*Pham winced quite a bit after his run-in with the wall, but remained in the game. He finished 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
*Benintendi's average is back over .200 after going 2-for-2 with a walk. Danny Mendick pinch-hit for him to close it out.
*The White Sox were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, or 0-for-8 after Lopez's single.
