Rangers 14, White Sox 5: Pitching disaster leads to blowout loss

The Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox today, by a big margin, 14-5. Pitching was the big issue, as multiple pitchers allowed runs.

The South Siders started hot and jumped out to an early lead. Glenn Otto allowed a leadoff single to Leury García, followed by Luis Robert reaching on a fielding error by Brad Miller in left field. After a José Abreu walk, Eloy Jiménez smacked a ground-rule double to left field to make it 2-0. Yasmani Grandal had an RBI line out to first to score Abreu from third. (Not too sure on how that one worked out since we … you know … couldn’t watch the game anywhere.)

Otto was unable to make it out of the first inning and was replaced by Triston Polley, who then allowed a walk to Romy González, followed by a double by Yoelqui Céspedes to extend the lead to 4-0.

Lance Lynn allowed back-to-back home runs to Corey Seager and Mitch Garver to cut the lead in half in the bottom of the first, but got out of the inning without any further damage. Otto then came back into the game to start the second inning (crazy pandemic re-entry rules live on!) and pitched a scoreless frame. Lynn bounced back with a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the second. Dennis Santana replaced Otto to end his day after two innings, and allowed a solo home run to González to extend the White Sox lead to 5-2.

Lynn let up another solo home run in the bottom of the third inning to Garver yet again, and the righty was replaced by Garvin Alston Jr. with two outs. Lynn didn’t have the best debut, going 2 ²⁄₃ with five hits and three runs, but he did strike out four batters.

Craig Kimbrel started out the bottom of the fourth with a strikeout, followed by a hit by pitch and walk. Jake Marisnick tripled to score Andy Ibanez and Willie Calhoun to tie the game 5-5, followed by a single by Seager and a force out by Garver to score two more runs. Trey Jeans replaced Kimbrel before he could get out of the inning.

This low velocity could just a first effort of spring training thing, but is definitely something to keep an eye on. How’re those phones ringing with trade offers, Rick?

Liam Hendriks and Garrett Crochet both got time on the mound and pitched scoreless innings, and Matt Foster started out the bottom of the seventh inning. After a single, Bubba Thompson hit a two-run home run to extend Texas’ lead to 10-5.

Brandon Finnegan replaced Foster to start the eighth, and allowed a leadoff double, a walk, and a RBI double by Davis Wendzel to make it it 11-5. Jose Trevino had an RBI ground out to push the Texas lead 12-5, followed by a RBI single by Blaine Crim and RBI double by Charlie Culberson. With the score now at 14-5, all the White Sox could hope was to get out of the inning before mercy rules came into play.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a fresh start for the pitching staff.

Speaking of pitching, oddly enough we will be facing the San Francisco Giants and Carlos Rodón. Think Los will be geared up to show the Sox what passing on an $18.4 million QO looks like?

Game time will be at 3:05 p.m. CT.