Angels crush balls to the heavens, wing it over Chicago, 12-5

About the only thing that went the White Sox way in this game was Statcast, or whoever makes such decisions, shortening Mike Trout’s first-inning homer from an originally-measured 476 feet to a mere 461 and Shohei Ohtani’s second two-run blast, which followed a demonstration by Gavin Sheets of why outfielding should be left to outfielders, from 478 to 463 feet (his first was a dinky 425 feet). Still homers, of course, but you gotta take your victories where you may. Heck, the dingers by Taylor Ward and Chris Wallach barely traveled more than 800 feet between them on first measurement, so there’s that.

The White Sox did manage one long ball, that by second baseman Jake Burger, when the game was well over in the ninth. It came off of Tucker Davidson, a dredges-of-the-bullpen lefty with an ERA that was pushing seven before Burger came up.

(Yes, no misprint there, second baseman Jake Burger — a little defensive trial in the last two innings, with Burger cleanly handling his only chance, a 77 mph two-hopper.

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Oh, whoops, they’re all of the Angels except for Burger, and the Sox didn’t work up the energy to post that, so forget it.

Davidson also gave up a double to Eloy Jiménez, to let Eloy stretch his hitting streak to 12, which was kind. Unfortunately, Romy González’s transition from worse than Mario Mendoza to better than Jeff Kent, or maybe Clark Kent, got put on hold, as he went 0-for-4 with two Ks.

The Angels feasted early and often on Lance Lynn, who threw 89 pitches, few of them well-guided, in four innings, good for eight runs on eight hits. After that, it was just hoping for rain, and what mostly rained was more Angels long balls, as their lead extended from 8-1 to 12-2.

The Sox, meanwhile, managed only one run on four hits off Jaime Barría, a reliever making his second start of the season, the run coming on a bloop single, two walks on pitches nowhere close, and a sac fly by Sheets.

Jesse Scholtens did a very nice job saving the rest of the bullpen, holding LA to Ward’s two-run shot in four innings of work. Garrett Crochet then showed again he’s been rushed into action too soon after TJS, getting rocked for three hits and two runs in the ninth.

The Angels lead was eventually 12-2, which is why Davidson got to hang around despite being very bad, a very generous gesture to a team that creams incompetent lefties.

The White Sox had a winning May! Yep, 15-14, thanks in large part to a schedule that couldn’t have been easier if they’d drawn it up themselves, including 20 games against the other dregs of the AAAL Central, along with three against the Reds, who should be made an honorable member of the division. Of course, that still leaves them 23-35 for the season, on pace for 64 wins.

Some help may come over the weekend, when the toothless Tigers come to town, but that theory didn’t work well in Detroit, so maybe not.