José Soriano entered tonight's game as the league's hottest pitcher, and given that he'd allowed just one run over his first 37⅔ innings while winning all five of his starts, there was no reason to doubt the claim.
"The guy is the best pitcher on the planet right now," said Will Venable.
But thanks to the first of Drew Romo's first two career homers, perhaps Davis Martin can be part of the conversation.
After the White Sox failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity an inning earlier, Romo's two-run shot in the fourth inning provided the needed blow that staggered the presumptive pitcher of the month. Romo then homered from the right side against Brent Suter two innings later, so while he couldn't match Seby Zavala's feat of hitting his first three homers in the same game, he at least added switch-hitting to the equation.
"[Zach] Bove and I were just grabbing each other, shaking each other, super excited," Martin said. "Talked to [Derek Shomon] and he's sitting there going, ‘Drew was in the Trajekt all day, facing those two guys all day.’ And to see him come up and see the work instantly pay off like that is phenomenal."
On the other side of the ball, Romo guided Martin through 5⅔ innings of one-run ball, and three White Sox relievers protected the lead to hand Soriano his first defeat of the season.
The White Sox led 1-0 through three on a second-inning solo shot by Colson Montgomery, but had a chance to break the game open in the fourth when Soriano walked the bases loaded over the course of five batters. Montgomery came to the plate with the bases loaded and worked a 2-0 count, but while he got a sinker up and on the outer half, he could only bounce it to second for a deflating 4-3 putout.
When Jorge Soler followed Nolan Schanuel's double with a single through the middle that tied the game at 1 in the top of the fourth, it seemed the Sox might've missed their moment.
Romo disagreed. He came to the plate with Sam Antonacci on first and two outs, but while he fell behind 0-2, Soriano left a center-cut sinker knee high, and Romo got the barrel underneath it and lifted it out to right for a two-run blast, and although further opportunities to run up the score also went by the wayside, they tacked on enough to close it out with comfort.
"One of the best days of my life," Romo said, reflecting on a wild offseason that has him suddenly on his fourth MLB organization. "We had the late game last night so today we didn’t practice on the field and had more free time, more free time to go in and hit off [the Trajekt]. I should probably do that a lot more."
Romo provided the first insurance run, ambushing Suter's first pitch with two outs and nobody on to make it 4-1. They could've used such a swing an inning later when they loaded the bases against Joey Lucchesi with nobody out, and the opportunity nearly slipped away when Colson Montgomery was rung up on a 3-2 pitch that was challenged into a strike, and Austin Hays bounced into a fielder's choice at home against new reliever José Fermín. But Antonacci came to the plate and did what he does best -- put his sleeve in the way of a fastball that missed up and in -- and the Sox briefly put the game outside of a save situation.
Jordan Leasure gave up a solo shot in the top of the eighth as his struggles continued, but that allowed Seranthony Domínguez to notch a rather simple seventh save, erasing a one-out walk with a game-ending double play ball.
That preserved the victory for Martin, who improved to 3-1 while lowering his ERA to 1.95. He opened his evening by striking out the side, and ended up tying a career high with seven K's, which mitigated the potential damage from seven hits. He had the classic combination of fastballs up and sharp breaking balls down.
Besides the Soler single, the only thing that went against him was a lack of 1-2-3 innings, which ran up his pitch count in a steady fashion. His best chance came in the second, but Mike Trout dipped his hand into the path of a 2-2 fastball that might've been a strike had it reached Romo's mitt cleanly, which extended the inning another batter. That made it all the more poetic when the Fermín fastball brushed Antonacci's sleeve, and the Angels challenged it to no avail.
Bullet points:
*Romo came into the game 0-for-3 over five plate appearances this season, and a .158/.213/.211 hitter over 61 plate appearances, most of which came with the Rockies. He left it as the first White Sox player to homer from both sides of the plate since Leury García on July 25, 2020.
*Soriano saw his 0.24 ERA more than triple with a rather mundane line: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 2 HR.
*Munetaka Murakami accounted for four of the White Sox's nine strikeouts. He ended up on the wrong side of two challenges along the way.
*Will Venable rotated out all his outfielders. Hays replaced Everson Pereira, whom the White Sox said left the game with right shoulder soreness, Luisangel Acuña took over for Tristan Peters after Chase Meidroth pinch-hit for him, and Derek Hill pinch-ran for Andrew Benintendi.
"He'll continue to be evaluated and [is] day-to-day," Venable said. "I don't think it was acute. I think it's been something that's kind of come in and out and been something that's bothered him here and there."
