Rays 10, White Sox 5: Ervin Santana no answer for pitching woes

To tie up a loose end on this morning’s post, the pitching rotation is now a five-car pile-up.

Making his White Sox debut, Ervin Santana showed why he went unsigned until February. He became the latest Sox starter to labor before an early exit, giving up seven runs on seven hits, three of them homers. He lasted only 3⅔ innings. throwing just 45 of 88 pitches for strikes.

Santana struggled to find the zone in part because the Rays pummeled his pitches inside it. Of the 17 batted balls he allowed, 10 of them registered above 95 mph. His fastball averaged 90.4 mph, but he also gave up two homers on his slider. Throw in just four swinging strikes, and there wasn’t much to like.

The White Sox offense had more moments, but this pitching staff is so riddled with holes that it’s hard for the team as a whole to rise above settling for moral victories.

For instance, the Sox trailed 8-2 entering the bottom of the eighth. The Rays were able to add their eighth run in the top of the inning because Rick Renteria didn’t trust Jose Ruiz against a lefty with two outs and a runner on first, and Caleb Frare fared worse than Ruiz probably would’ve. He gave up a single to lefty Austin Meadows, and the first of two wild pitches brought the run home.

That made the hole even deeper for a lineup that runs out of talent after seven batters. With a runner on first and two outs, the Sox strung together five strong plate appearances:

1. Yonder Alonso, full-count walk.
2. Tim Anderson RBI single on a 2-2 pitch.
3. Welington Castillo, full-count walk.
4. Eloy Jimenez, RBI infield single on a full count.
5. Jose Rondon, full-count walk.

Rondon entered for Daniel Palka after Kevin Cash went to lefty flame-thrower Jose Alvarado, which was Renteria’s only good available move. Rondon got ahead 3-0 and resisted swinging at the next three pitches to make it an 8-5 game.

Problem was, Renteria was one good move short, because he had either Yolmer Sanchez swinging right-handed or Adam Engel pinch-hitting. Renteria chose the latter for the better chance of home run power, I guess, and it could’ve worked had Engel used Rondon’s strategy. After taking a first-pitch fastball, he watched the next three out of the zone. Alvarado responded with a sinker in the zone that Engel fouled off, but Engel then swung at the sixth sinker in the dirt for the final out.

But even if Engel extended the inning, Jace Fry showed why it might not have mattered. He’s still having major problems retiring same-sided hitters, as an infield single to one lefty kickstarted a 46-pitch, 27-strike slog that included a bases-loaded walk to another one. He’s faced 14 lefties on the season, and eight of them have reached.

Bullet points:

*This game featured 14 walks, with the White Sox drawing a respectable six.

*Manny Banuelos had the only pitching appearance worth bragging about on the Sox’ side. He threw 3⅓ scoreless, easy innings in relief of Santana, which the Sox might have to keep in mind for future fifth-starter openings down the line.

*Yoan Moncada had the lone highlight off Charlie Morton, a majestic two-run blast in the third inning that put him back on track.

*Leury Garcia went 0-for-4, but Anderson singled twice to keep his hitting streak alive at 10 games.

*Jimenez airmailed the cutoff man on a fruitless throw home in the ninth, which is one of those learning experiences, I suppose. The infield had a decent day defensively, so something had to give.

Record: 3-7 | Box score | Highlights

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon