Blue Jays 7, White Sox 1: Jose Berrios bests Sox again

After winning the first game convincingly, the Chicago White Sox sought a similar result on Saturday afternoon in hopes of clinching their first road series win since May 13-15 in Cincinnati. Standing in their way was an old enemy, Jose Berrios, who has started more games against the White Sox than any other opponent in his 10-year career. Toronto was hopeful that Berrios could go deep into his start, as they used seven relievers yesterday. Meanwhile, Aaron Civale was making his second start with the White Sox, with manager Will Venable hoping the veteran could eat up innings. 

It was not a great start to the game for Civale. His first batter faced was Bo Bichette, who smacked the first pitch he saw for a leadoff home run. Then, in the second inning, the Blue Jays put together five singles, plating three more runs, giving them a four-run cushion. It appeared that Civale was destined for an early exit. 

But Civale deserves some credit for finding his rhythm. He retired the next seven batters faced and kept the Blue Jays scoreless going into the seventh inning. That's when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. crushed a hanging slider for a solo home run, putting Toronto ahead, 5-1. 

That was enough run support for Berrios, who had his best start in the 2025 season. Ryan Noda led off the game with a single, but the White Sox wouldn't have another base hit off Berrios until the sixth inning. Miguel Vargas hit a fly ball down the right field foul line, and Blue Jays right fielder Nathan Lukes' diving attempt fell short. Vargas reached third base for his second triple of the season as the ball trickled to the wall. 

Next was Andrew Benintendi, and on a first-pitch fastball, hit a grounder to Guerrero at first base. Rather than run to first base for the force out, Guerrero threw to home plate, hoping to get Vargas out. Instead, Guerrero's throw went up the third base line and allowed Vargas to swim over the tag from Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk to score safely. Finally, the White Sox cashed in on the contact play. 

Berrios kept rolling into the eighth inning when he struck out Austin Slater and Vinny Capra. As he was approaching 100 pitches, the fuel tank symbol flashed when Berrios walked Noda on four pitches. Blue Jays manager John Schneider called it a day for Berrios, who finished 7.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K on 98 pitches. 

Meanwhile, Civale did the job he was traded for when the White Sox acquired him from Milwaukee. It wasn't pretty, but Civale held up, covering seven innings on 96 pitches. For the eighth inning, Venable gave the ball to lefty Jake Palisch, who made his MLB debut. His first two batters faced reached when George Springer's hard-hit grounder deflected off third baseman Josh Rojas into left field for a single. Ernie Clement would follow that up with a grounder at Lenyn Sosa covering second base, who couldn't make the throw to first base in time, resulting in an infield single. 

Both runners came around to score off Davis Schneider's double down the left-field line, giving Toronto a 7-1 lead. 

Game Notes

• White Sox are now 8-32 in road games this season. The .200 winning percentage puts them behind last year’s pace (18-63; .222 winning percentage).
• Ryan Noda and Miguel Vargas had the White Sox's only hits.
• Vinny Capra went 0-for-3 and his season OPS is now .288. Josh Rojas went 0-for-2 with a walk and his season OPS is .492

Record: 24-53 | Box Score | StatCast