The White Sox spent Friday night getting dragged through a game that never really let them breathe.
Texas beat them 11-2, and the shape of it was ugly from the opening inning. José Urquidy never found a rhythm, the lineup went quiet after the third, and by the end the Sox were stuck burning through pitchers while the Rangers kept stacking two-out damage.
Urquidy needed 38 pitches just to get through the first. He opened by loading the bases with two walks and a two-strike hit-by-pitch, then watched Ezequiel Durán’s slow roller to short fail to produce a double play. Evan Carter followed with a double that made it 2-0 before Urquidy could escape.
That was only the beginning of the slog. The Rangers scored nine of their 11 runs with two outs, and the second inning was the clearest example of how miserable the night became.
Urquidy got the first two batters on six pitches, then needed 21 more to finally get the third out. He might have escaped scoreless if Chase Meidroth hadn’t slipped while rounding off a grounder on the shortstop side of second, falling to the ground and blooding his jersey with a forearm wound.
Instead, Texas pushed the lead to 3-1 and never looked back.
By the time Urquidy was finished after three innings, he had thrown 93 pitches. Texas starter Kumar Rocker threw the same number over six innings.
The Sox did have one brief jolt. Tristan Peters homered for the third straight game, a two-run shot in the second inning.
Before that, Andrew Benintendi had a chance to do even more damage, but Brandon Nimmo climbed the wall to take away what would have been a two-run homer in the bottom of the first. That catch helped keep the deficit from getting worse, but the Sox still trailed 3-2, and the game kept slipping away from there.
Their best chance to flip things came in the third. Munetaka Murakami singled, then Miguel Vargas and Braden Montgomery drew walks to load the bases. But Colson Montgomery struck out on four pitches, and Chase Meidroth followed by chasing a full-count pitch to strand everyone.
Texas kept piling on while the White Sox kept failing to finish innings. Tyler Schweitzer put up a zero in the fourth, then gave up a leadoff homer to Jake Burger in the fifth. A pair of two-out doubles added another run, with Braden Montgomery and Peters both arriving at Corey Seager’s double to the right-center gap at the same time and overrunning it.
Huascar Brazobán walked Durán with one out in the sixth, then after Drew Romo cut down a stolen-base attempt at second, Brazobán issued another walk to Carter. Jake Burger’s line drive to center then split the gap for another Rangers run.
Trevor Richards took over in the seventh, seemingly still being asked to finish an inning too early. He got through the seventh, then gave up a run in the eighth on two very wild changeups. His 61st pitch of the night ended up over the left-field wall for a two-run homer, and that finally brought Will Venable to Luisangel Acuña, who got the last out on three pitches.
The Sox’s offense never found much after the third. Colson Montgomery finished 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, with a foul popout in his final at-bat ending the whiff parade.
Rangers pitchers retired 10 straight batters at one point, then closed the game by setting down the final 10. Rocker, Robby Ahlstrom and Jordan Montgomery needed only 132 pitches combined, while the White Sox threw 214, their second-highest total of the season.
There was also a second-inning ejection for Joc Pederson, who was tossed after being denied a challenge by home plate umpire Chris Guccione on a strike three and then arguing from the dugout when later challenges were granted.
And for one last snapshot of the night: Urquidy got only four whiffs on 40 swings, which helps explain why even the two strikeouts he did record seemed to come with extra frustration attached.
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