Blue Jays 7, White Sox 0: Doomed from the start

The White Sox really should've called it a night after Adam Eaton pulled up lame with cramps after running out a groundout.

Sure, there were still 53 outs to go at that point, but it really didn't matter. The Sox fell behind early, and they fell behind hard. They fell behind early and hard.

Scott Carroll gave up five runs over five innings in his return to the rotation, but he didn't get much help, either from his offense or his defense. And on one play, he was included in the defense.

The Jays scored all the runs they needed before Carroll recorded his first out. Jose Reyes reached on a "single" (a hard turf bouncer that Gordon Beckham probably should've had). Melky Cabrera followed with a swinging bunt single that Carroll decided not to play, even though it had no chance of rolling foul. And to cap it off, Adam Lind doubled home one run to right field, and Moises Sierra allowed the second run to score when his cannon arm fired to nobody, and the first-base dugout screen blocked it.

Carroll created his own problems over the other four innings, allowing three more runs, and all with two outs. Reyes hit a triple off the very top of the wall for one run in the second, and then Carroll allowed four straight Jays to reach after retiring the first two batters in the fourth -- including a line-drive single off his leg -- resulting in two more runs.

By the time it got to the fifth, both teams looked like they had set up a keg at second base. Dioner Navarro started the inning with a deep fly to left, which clanked off Dayan Viciedo's glove for a "double." Leury Garcia came up firing to try to get the plodding Toronto catcher at second, but his throw went well wide and into four territory in shallow right field. Navarro headed to third, and, to his chagrin, he received the green light home.

Jose Abreu tracked down the ball, wheeled around and fired a strike to Adrian Nieto as an out-of-gas Navarro tried running around the tag. After a double and a throwing error, Navarro was out at home, and the Blue Jays laughed it up in the dugout.

The inning ended when Viciedo and Garcia collided in left center on a flyball. Garcia somehow made the catch.

Meanwhile, J.A. Happ made the Sox offense look hapless. He struck out eight over 7⅔ innings, allowing just four hits and two walks -- and his second walk came on his 124th and final pitch of the night. That's not to say he shut the Sox down completely. They started three different innings with a runner on second -- Beckham doubled, Conor Gillaspie reached on an error, and Sierra doubled -- but the Sox couldn't turn any of those baserunners into runs.

Even though the Sox offense is improved, that's still par for the course. They entered the game hitting a league worst .125/.160/.146 with a runner on second and nobody out this season.

One newsworthy item during a lost evening -- Eric Surkamp made his debut, throwing a nine-pitch, 1-2-3 sixth inning to start his White Sox career.

Of course, then he walked the leadoff guy in the seventh, and he came around to score on Andre Rienzo's watch. The potentially official start of Rienzo's relief career was an inauspicious one, as he allowed the inherited runner to score in the seventh, then allowed another run in the eighth on two hits and a walk. But he could've had a leadoff infield single added to his tab. Somehow, Steve Tolleson's 5-3 groundout was upheld after a lengthy review, even though video evidence suggested he was safe.

And somehow, Viciedo saved Rienzo two more runs when he made a leaping catch against the wall to take extra bases away from Adam Lind.

Bullet points:

*Eaton's hitting streak came to an end at 12 games, but Abreu extended his to 11 with a single.

*Viciedo went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts during a night he'd rather forget. Had he been charged for an error on the warning-track drop, all three outfielders would've committed one.

Record: 36-44 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights