Diamondbacks 4, White Sox 3: Rally against Addison Reed falls short

Like Friday night, the Diamondbacks' starter retired the first nine hitters in order.

Unlike Friday night, the torrent of White Sox hits failed to follow.

The Sox couldn't quite crack Wade Miley -- not the way the Diamondbacks got to Jose Quintana in a three-run fifth, anyway. Yet even though the Sox played a pretty flat ballgame in various respects, I suppose it says something about their ability that they can get the tying run to second in the ninth inning. The game didn't feel as close as it turned out to be.

The Diamondbacks put the first runs on the board with a string of hits off Quintana. With one out and a runner on second, Arizona rattled off back-to-back doubles by Alfredo Marte and Chris Owings, a bloop single by A.J. Pollock, and a sac fly by Martin Prado to give the Diamondbacks a 3-0 lead.

The long inning may have messed with the rhythm of a quick-working Miley, because he threw a couple of his fatter pitches in the bottom of the fifth, and the Sox converted. Dayan Viciedo led off with a line-drive single to left, and two batters later, Paul Konerko turned on a 91-mph fastball over the heart of the plate and cranked it to left for his first homer of the season, cutting the gap to 3-2.

But the Sox could never get all the way back in it. Zach Putnam had his first bad outing of the year, but he was lucky to get out of the seventh with just one run allowed, as a relay from the left-center gap cut down Owings trying to stretch a leadoff double into a triple.

Nevertheless, Addison Reed made sure that insurance run went to good use. His first outing against his former team started with a pinch-hit single by Conor Gillaspie. He moved to second on a wild pitch as Reed struck out Jose Abreu and Dayan Viciedo with killer inside-corner fastballs, but Alexei Ramirez extended his at-bat long enough to get a fastball he could take up the middle. His single drove in Gillaspie to make it a one-run game once again.

That brought Konerko to the plate, and although Ramirez stole second to put the tying run in scoring position, Konerko couldn't cash him in. Reed threw him a 1-2 fastball away, and Konerko could only nub it to second to end the game.

Bullet points:

*Adam Dunn pinch-hit for Moises Sierra, then moved to left as Viciedo played right. Then Viciedo turned a flyout into a triple in the top of the ninth, but Daniel Webb found a way to strand the runner. Adam Eaton can't come back soon enough.

*The White Sox failed to draw a walk for just the second time this season. At this point last season, they had already had five such games.

Record: 19-19 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights