When Cam Booser gave up a solo homer in his first inning as a White Sox reliever, it merely spoiled their bid for a shutout in an otherwise rousing Opening Day victory.
When Booser gave up a solo shot on the first pitch of his second inning as a White Sox reliever, it decided the game.
Kyren Paris pounced on a first-pitch fastball to open the eighth inning to put the Angels ahead 3-2 in the top of the eighth as Los Angeles withstood a pair of potential White Sox rallies to take a severely rain delayed rubber match in the season-opening series.
The White Sox had a runner on second after a one-out Matt Thaiss double in the bottom of the seventh when the skies opened with wind, rain and hail. The deluge came on so quickly that the grounds crew could not pull the tarp over the right side of the infield, and Roger Bossard's group had to pivot to a quilt of other tarps to prevent the area around first base from turning into a bayou.
"Actually in my career here, I’ve never seen hail during a game," Bossard said postgame. "Disco Demolition is No. 1 on my hit list of course. This is probably No. 2. I’ve never run into where I had three inches of water on the infield and then got it ready. I’m proud of my crew and the job they did."
The tarp got stuck at White Sox-Angels, prompting adaptations of an unusual nature.
— James Fegan (@jrfegan.soxmachine.com) 2025-03-30T20:01:17.700Z
It did require plenty of Diamond-Dry and squeegees in order to get the field back into playing shape, and after a two-hour, 48-minute rain delay, Miguel Vargas resumed the game by drawing a walk against Ben Joyce. Both moved up into scoring position, but Brooks Baldwin popped out to the left side, and Lenyn Sosa popped out to the right side to keep the game tied.
One pitch later, Paris untied it, and the White Sox couldn't get that run back, even though a runner reached scoring position in the final two innings. Luis Robert Jr. singled and stole second with two outs in the eighth, but Andrew Benintendi grounded out on a fine play by Luis Rengifo. Andrew Vaughn opened the ninth with a leadoff double against Kenley Jansen, and Thaiss backfilled first base with a walk, but Vargas popped out to second and Baldwin grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to send the Sox below .500.
The lengthy delay made the fine efforts of the starting pitchers a distant memory. Davis Martin's afternoon started with a grounder that shot through Jake Amaya's legs for an error. An infield single and a line drive single loaded the bases, and a pair of productive outs led to two unearned runs and a 2-0 Angels lead.
"Tough play to start there for Amaya, the ball kind of stayed down on him," said Will Venable. "He's one of our guys out there that we trust and is a great defender. Tough to start the game like that, but I thought Davis did a good job of pitching around that. Really happy with the way that our offense responded after that too."
"Tough play to start there for Amaya, the ball kind of stayed down on him," said Will Venable. "He's one of our guys out there that we trust and is a great defender. Tough to start the game like that, but I thought Davis did a good job of pitching around that. Really happy with the way that our offense responded after that too."
The White Sox offense immediately answered off Jack Kochanowicz. Nick Maton lofted a middle-middle sinker into the right-center seats to cut the lead in half, and Robert scored the other run when he singled, advanced two bases on a pair of deep flyouts, and scored on a Thaiss RBI single to right.
Both starters then pitched five scoreless innings after the early turbulence. Martin somehow struck out only half as many batters as Kochanowicz, who posted the league's lowest K rate last year, but he found the ears on his changeup and effectively used it as a sinker. He threw it more than any other pitch -- 31 of 91 on the afternoon -- and eventually they started getting hit into the ground.
"We're going to throw it, we're going to throw it often," Martin said postgame. "The difference is being able to set it up better than last year and not just solely relying on throwing it over and over again."
He completed a fine set of starts this weekend, as he, Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon combined to allow just two unearned runs over 17 innings.
Bullet points:
*The actual game itself only took 2 hours and 15 minutes to complete.
*Bossard said the White Sox grounds crew used 175 bags (equaling 9,000 pounds) of drying compound to address the field, which he says he's never done before.
*The White Sox were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
*The box score shows Baldwin going 1-for-4, but he had a tough game. He was once again doubled off on an unsuccessful hit-and-run, and then he stranded four in his last two plate appearances.
*Thaiss reached base three times, so he made his presence felt against his former team.
*Speaking of which, Tim Anderson made a sparkling throw to end the game, but went 0-for-3 with a strikeout, so he leaves Chicago still looking for his first hit of the season. Yoán Moncada was 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts, but he did get a run home with a groundout in the first inning.
