Rangers 11, White Sox 5: Winning streak ends with a thud

What drove Chris Sale to madness?

(And why was he using his throwing hand?)

Well, four homers went a long way -- especially considering Sale had never allowed more than two in any other outing.

Jeff Baker and Adam Rosales continued to be a Sale- and Sox-killers, each hitting two-run homers in the second inning to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead Adrian Belre took him deep in the sixth for a solo shot.

And in between, Ian Kinsler hit an inside-the-park homer when his double off the end of the bat stuck under the padding along the sidewall, and Dayan Viciedo never stopped pursuing it. Instead of holding up his arms and walking away from the ball, Viciedo briefly expressed befuddlement before continuing to search under the padding. The ball stayed a live one, and Kinsler scored.

The enduring image is something along the lines of The Last Supper:

Damn kids always know where the ball is:

Anyway, that made it a 5-3 game and led to Robin Ventura's ejection, but it was just one brain fart among many.

In chronological order:

No. 1: Alejandro De Aza chose to look over his shoulder on a blooper to right instead of picking up Joe McEwing, and stopped at second when he could've coasted easily into third. That took a sac fly situation away from the Sox, and they didn't score in the first inning.

No. 2: Viciedo's wall adventure.

No. 3: In the fourth, Josh Phegley ran into an out at third on a grounder hit in front of him. It was an RBI fielder's choice, but he took a runner out of scoring position, and the Sox wouldn't score again until garbage time in the ninth.

No. 4: De Aza overshot the cutoff man on a hopeless throw home. It didn't lead to extra runs, but add it to the list regardless.

No. 5: Viciedo lost a ball in the lights in the ninth. That's not really a brain fart, but it certainly put the cherry on top of this one.

The offense had one rally in it. After the Rangers scored four in the top of the second, the Sox answered with three off Martin Perez in the bottom of the inning. Avisail Garcia led off with a single, moved to third on Jeff Keppinger's ground-rule double, and they scored on Viciedo's single. Viciedo took second on balk and later scored on Gordon Beckham's bloop single, but that was as close as the Sox could come to tying it back up.

Bullet points:

*Leury Garcia made his White Sox debut and hit a broken-bat single to right in the eighth.

*Alex Rios went 2-for-5 with two runs scored. A.J. Pierzynski went 1-for-4 with a run scored and a sac fly.

*Dylan Axelrod gave up a pinch-hit homer to Mitch Moreland in the eighth, the Rangers' fifth homer of the night.

Record: 52-75 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights