Alexei Ramirez's season-opening 17-game hitting streak came to a close, and it's hard to think of a more painful, harmful way to end.
Ramirez went 0-for-4 with two double plays, both with the bases loaded. The first took the teeth out of a second-inning rally on Colby Lewis, and the second put the dagger in the White Sox' valiant effort to tie it up in the eighth. Adding insult to injury, Alex Rios made a sliding catch in the left center gaps for one of the single-out at-bats.
The Rangers came through with a couple more big hits -- and two homers helped -- to take the second game of the series, and send the Sox to their fourth straight loss.
Jose Quintana seemed to make better pitches than his counterpart, Colby Lewis, did. The Rangers offense just did a lot of damage on tough pitches.
Rios gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead when he shanked a double down the right-field line. Prince Fielder helped the Rangers regain the lead by yanking a solo homer on a pitch inside to lead off the fourth, and Josh Wilson muscled another inside-corner pitch into shallow left field for a two-run single, giving the Rangers a 4-1 lead. Shin-Soo Choo stretched it to 5-1 before the close of the fourth on a fastball on the low outside corner, but he was looking for it there and lined it to left.
Quintana's stuff seemed to be lacking a bit of oomph, and that might've made the difference between a pop-out to the infield, and a bloop hit to the shallow outfield.
The Rangers' only run on a bad pitch came in the eighth, when Kevin Kouzmanoff golfed a hanging Jake Petricka slider to left to tack on a disheartening insurance run.
The White Sox weren't so lucky. Ramirez's first double play in the second inning followed three straight singles, and while it brought a run home, it took the teeth out of the threat.
Ramirez then came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. Ron Washington brought in Jason Frasor to face him, and Frasor retired him on a 5-3 fielder's choice to end the inning.
The Sox finally got back on the board in the eighth. Conor Gillaspie walked, followed by singles by Jose Abreu and Adam Dunn that loaded the bases. Viciedo finally delivered a big hit, drilling a hanging breaking ball through the left side to score two. That brought Ramirez to the plate as the go-ahead run, but he grounded into a routine 6-4-3 to kill the best chance to get back into the game.
Bullet points:
*Adam Eaton left with a mild hamstring strain. He pulled up lame running to first, after he collided with Prince Fielder on a chopper down the line one pitch earlier.
*Former White Sox first-round pick Aaron Poreda faced his old team, and he didn't look that impressive. He faced two batters, retiring Dunn on a smash to center and walking Viciedo.
*Dunn went 3-for-4 with a stolen base, and took third when the throw bounced into center.
*Abreu snapped out of his funk by going 2-for-3 with a walk.
*Actually, the Sox' No. 3-6 hitters (Gillaspie, Abreu, Dunn, Viciedo) went 8-for-13 with three walks. The rest of the lineup? 1-for-20.
*Petricka spared the bullpen with three walkless innings of relief: 3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HR.
Record: 8-10 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights