For the second-straight night, the White Sox showed some fight in the ninth, but this one is better marked by the lack of fight that preceded it.
The Sox offense looked largely adrift against a Texas bullpen game, only stringing together productive plate appearances in the seventh inning. By that time, the Rangers had already built a 3-0 lead against Adrian Houser, leaving them enough of a cushion to survive a couple of late scares.
Shawn Armstrong opened the game with three perfect innings, striking out the last four batters he faced, and the Sox didn't break up the perfect game until Luis Robert Jr. reached on a single. Even then it lacked authority, because 1) it was an infield single, and 2) required a Will Venable challenge to overturn the call.
"They were really aggressive and I just think we didn't match their aggression," Venable said. "It was like the fifth inning before we had a 2-0 count, and to me that's just a function of us not forcing them out of the zone."
"When it’s a bullpen day, it’s hard to game plan for," said Andrew Benintendi. "We usually go over starting pitchers, then the bullpen, and where we’re looking and things like that in our plan against pitchers. They pound the zone, so when you’re down 0-1, 0-2, 1-2, it’s tough, especially when they got arms like that. Hopefully that’s not the case tomorrow."
The White Sox didn't get cooking until the seventh against lefty Hoby Milner. Miguel Vargas reached with a one-out single, Edgar Quero pinch-hit for Kyle Teel and pulled a single through the left side, and then Robert lined a double into the left-field corner to score Vargas to make it a 3-1 game with just one out.
Venable called for Brooks Baldwin to pinch-hit for Josh Rojas, Bruce Bochy countered with righty Chris Martin, and the student did not defeat the teacher. Baldwin, in his first plate appearance back in the majors, chased a high 2-2 cutter for a strikeout, and Michael A. Taylor flied out to left to end the inning.
The Sox's ninth-inning rally took a similiar shape. Benintendi led off with a double on Robert Garcia's second pitch, and Vargas walked to put the tying run aboard. Quero and Robert hit a pair of harmless flyouts, and while Austin Slater was able to survive a full count for a bases-loading walk after a platinum sombrero the night before, Taylor fell behind 0-2 and struck out on four pitches to end the game.
Adrian Houser took the loss, and he spent the entire game on the hook for it. It was a struggle from the first batter, as Josh Smith reached on an infield single despite Vinny Capra's best sliding attempt. He moved to third on Wyatt Langford's single to pose an immediate threat, and while Houser limited the damage to a Corey Seager sac fly, the Rangers were able to establish the theme of Smith scoring on Houser in odd-numbered innings.
In the third, Smith got the 3-0 green light after three misses, and he took a middle-middle sinker out to right center for a 2-0 lead. In the fifth, Houser did not give in on 3-0, and instead walked him on four pitches. Seager walked two batters later, and then Marcus Semien lashed a double inside third base to drive home Smith for the Rangers' final run.
"I’ve been sick for the last week, so still trying to get over that," Houser said. "The body is a little off there, so wasn’t able to feel everything I wanted to feel. Hopefully this week I can get back and get some energy back and feeling good and can get right back on the right track."
The best thing about Houser's night was that he was able to last five frames, even though he didn't record a single 1-2-3 inning. The closest he came was in the fourth, when he picked off Jonah Heim after a two-out single. He spent a lot of the game in bad counts, and could've paid a bigger price for the 10 baserunners over five innings.
As it stood, he kept the game within reach, as did the two White Sox relievers who followed. Dan Altavilla worked around a leadoff HBP for a scoreless sixth, and then Tyler Gilbert finished the final two innings in his first game back from the injured list. His pulse might've raced a little on his final batter, as Mike Tauchman caught Josh Jung's fly ball to right center while elbowing Robert in the nose.
Bullet points:
*White Sox pitching's three strikeouts tied a season low.
*Vargas played first as Tim Elko got the night off, and he made a pair of nice picks to save errors for Capra and Rojas on tricky hops across the diamond.
Elko was on deck to pinch hit for Capra as Taylor made the final out in the ninth. With Baldwin, Rojas and Capra out of the game, it would have made for an interesting defensive alignment if the Sox had pushed the game to the bottom half.
"We were talking about that," Venable said. "You might have seen Vargas at second base, might have seen Elko at third. It was going to get funky."
*Tauchman was robbed of the first White Sox hit by Evan Carter, who made a tremendous diving catch, but he ended up leaving the game with wrist soreness.
*Mike Vasil is Saturday's starting pitcher.
