White Sox 4, Red Sox 0: Scott Carroll grounds Boston offense

For the fourth straight game, White Sox pitching held its opponents scoreless through eight innings.

For the third straight game, a starter finished at least 6⅔ shutout innings.

For the second straight game, the bullpen saw it through to a shutout.

For the first game, the White Sox get to extend the misery surrounding the Red Sox this season.

Scott Carroll picked up where Hector Noesi and Jose Quintana -- and Chris Sale for that matter -- left off, holding the Red Sox to one measly A.J. Pierzynski single and two measly walks over 6⅔ innings for his third victory of the season. He did so without encountering a serious threat all night. The worst he experienced: a leadoff walk in the sixth inning, but a strikeout and two groundouts kept Jackie Bradley Jr. stranded at second.

Those two groundouts represented two-thirds of the Red Sox' chances with runners in scoring position, but just 11 percent of their groundouts. Carroll alone induced 13 of them (to just one flyout), and even Pierzynski's single stayed on the ground. The Red Sox didn't fare any better against Javy Guerra and Zach Putnam, either.

The White Sox, on the other hand, had more success getting lift against Clay Buchholz, and two swings accounted for all the damage.

The first was by Adam Dun, who led off the second by ripping a high 2-2 changeup over the bullpen in right field for a solo shot, and his 453rd career homer, passing Carl Yastrzemski for sole possession of 35th on the all-time list.

The second was by Dayan Viciedo two innings later. Dunn extended the inning with a two-out double, and Buchholz inexplicably walked Alexei Ramirez on four pitches to bring Viciedo to the plate. Viciedo fell behind 0-2, but he worked the count full, and when Buchholz threw a high, outer-half cutter, Viciedo shot a line drive into the seats just right of center to give Chicago a 4-0 lead.

Buchholz recovered affer that to last seven after early inefficiency, but the White Sox did enough damage to keep his ERA north of 6.00.

Bullet points:

*The teams completed this game in two hours and 55 minutes, which is downright speedy for a Buchholz start. Severe weather did delay the start by 39 minutes, though, with sporadic rain falling the rest of the game.

*John Farrell won a challenge in the fifth when Jim Joyce said Mike Napoli came off the bag to handle a throw on Adam Eaton's grounder. The White Sox' replays weren't conclusive, but somebody in New York saw enough to overturn the call.

Record: 43-47 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights