Colson Montgomery and Munetaka Murakami combined to whiff on half of their 18 swings tonight.
What they did with the other half made for a rare laugher.
Montgomery put the Sox up early with a couple of run-scoring hits as the rest of the lineup struggled with runners on base, and Murakami put the game away in the seventh inning with a thunderous grand slam. With Davis Martin throwing seven easy innings for a second consecutive start, the White Sox were able to snap their three-game skid with room to spare.
The White Sox never trailed, but they struggled to seize control of the game. Sure, they led 5-1 through five, but they also stranded nine runners, which lent an air of uncertainty to the evening.
Two innings later, Murakami left zero doubt.
He came to the plate with the bases loaded in a rally the White Sox restarted after Sam Antonacci was caught stealing and Edgar Quero struck out. With two outs and nobody on, Chase Meidroth and Luisangel Acuña drew the second and third walks of the inning from Elvis Alvarado, and Andrew Benintendi reached on a squibber that extended the middle infield into the outfield.
Murakami alternated balls and strikes through five pitches to load the count. With nowhere to put him, Alvarado challenged Murakami with 98 mph. Murakami accepted the challenge and deposited it over the batter's eye, with Statcast registering it at 114.1 mph off the bat and 431 feet from home plate. That extended the White Sox lead to two slams, and even the most anxious fan could exhale.
Martin did everything in his power to make the evening a leisurely one. He limited the Athletics to a run on three hits and two walks over seven innings, and it might've been seven scoreless had Luisangel Acuña not lost a fly ball in the twilight for a ground-rule double that broke up the no-hitter.
Otherwise, Martin was his best self. He needed just 20 pitches to get through three, and even with the 25-pitch fourth due to the defensive complications, he still completed seven innings on 89 pitches.
Meanwhile, Aaron Civale looked like the White Sox version of Aaron Civale, where any attempt to gain control of the game was fleeting. The Sox pestered him for 11 hits and a walk over 4⅔ innings. Some of it was pure BABIP, like Andrew Benintendi starting the game with a bloop double, Miguel Vargas dropping a 63.2 mph floater that barely touched the outfield grass over Nick Kurtz at first, or Luisangel Acuña rolling a swinging bunt up the third-base line. But the Sox also took their share of comfortable swings; especially the righties, who looked unconcerned about covering the inner half of the plate, and rightfully so.
They just took their time delivering the knockout blows. Montgomery delivered a two-out double to put the Sox ahead in the first, and then followed up singles by Murakami and Vargas with his own base hit through the middle to make it 2-0 in the third. Vargas unwisely took third on the play and was lucky to be hit by the throw, and eventually scored on an Edgar Quero groundout.
Montgomery earned enough respect to receive an intentional walk that loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth, and although Everson Pereira correctly identified a 2-0 pitch to attack, his 100-mph line drive found Carlos Cortes in left.
Civale was almost able to skate through five despite the traffic, but Chase Meidroth's grounder to third looked like an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play off the bat, but it only resulted in a 5-4 fielder's choice because Max Muncy's throw to second spun Jeff McNeil around, and the Sox took advantage of the extra life. Acuña rifled a double to the right-center gap that scored Meidroth and chased Civale from the game. In came Alvarado, but Benintendi peppered the base of the right-field wall himself, making it a 5-1 game.
The White Sox outhit the A's 15-4, threw just 128 pitches while seeing 194 of them, and turned two double plays against zero for Sacramento. The superior effort was reflected on the scoreboard.
Bullet points:
*Doug Nikhazy made his White Sox debut and accomplished the task at hand, in the sense that he allowed one run over two innings but never made Will Venable consider warming up anybody else. He walked two and threw two wild pitches, but he was on-target with a throw to first on what looked like a sure infield single to the left of the mound.
*Benintendi and Murkami went 6-for-11 with four runs scored and five RBIs from the top two spots in the lineup. They own the only two three-hit games for the Sox this season, and they're now both hitting over .200 as a result.
*Acuña had an eventful day in the field. He was far more comfortable with hard-hit liners than high flies, as he lost one and was late to another, resulting a near-collision with Pereira in right center.
*He also had one painful trip on the basepaths. First, he was hit by Shea Langeliers' throw on his swinging bunt. Civale almost picked him off first, and then Murakami almost drilled him with a 109.5-mph single through the right side, so he had to stop at second. Civale picked him off there, but Acuña was able to advance to third because of McNeil's wide throw to third. Unfortunately, Vargas struck out in a sac fly situation, and Acuña never made it home.
*Antonacci reached base twice on his first MLB HBP and a four-pitch walk, but he was caught stealing easily at second base by Langeliers, and was slow to get to his feet after a rough slide into second.
*Quero, one day after the most valuable challenging performance to date, tapped his helmet to challenge a pitch called a ball against Jeff McNeil, then pretended he didn't. Home plate Chad Fairchild didn't see it, but McNeil caught it, and so did second base umpire Bill Miller. The challenge proceeded, and showed why Quero had second thoughts when the ball call was easily confirmed.
