Giants 8, White Sox 5: Grant Taylor gives way

Grant Taylor picked a bad time to give up the first homer of his major league career, and hopefully that's the extent of his problems.

Called upon to extinguish a potential game-changing rally in the fifth inning, he exacerbated it instead. He walked Casey Schmitt to load the bases, and then Rafael Devers unloaded them with an opposite-field grand slam that turned a 4-4 game into an 8-4 deficit.

Taylor entered after Noah Schultz opened the inning by allowing a double, then filling first base by drilling Luis Arraez with a second consecutive bad miss inside (after drilling him in the backside the previous trip). Will Venable called for his best reliever in Taylor, but Taylor showed up without his best stuff. He walked Schmitt on nine pitches, with a fastball that averaged just 97 mph and breaking balls that were missing three ticks.

Devers followed, and Taylor tried to start him off with a high fastball. It wasn't high enough to compensate for the missing life, and Devers rode it out to left for the game-breaking slam.

Taylor recovered by getting Matt Chapman to ground out, but with his fastball still coming up short of 98, Venable pulled him after just one out and 16 pitches.

Unlike Saturday's game that also turned on a slam, this one didn't get out of hand. Tyler Davis, Seranthony Domínguez and Brandon Eisert kept the Giants off the board through the sixth, seventh and eighth, and Miguel Vargas hit a solo shot to start the top of the seventh, but the damage was already done.

Noah Schultz took the loss in another arduous afternoon. Chase Meidroth staked him to an immediate 1-0 lead with a leadoff homer, but the Sox trailed before the first inning was over. Schultz walked Adames to start, and after an Arraez sac bunt, Schmitt and Devers doubled to put the Giants ahead 2-1. Schmitt's double was an unfortunate piece of hitting, an opposite-field flare on a changeup well off the plate, but Devers' was on a sweeper that floated inner half, and it was lucky to stay in the park, as he hit it to the triangle in right center.

The middle of San Francisco's order tormented Schultz. When it came around again in the third, Schultz drilled Arraez, then gave up a two-run shot to Casey Schmitt that made it a 4-1 game. He accounted for three Giants RBIs, with Devers supplying the other five.

While the Giants played long ball, Will Venable tried the other tack. The Sox had runners on second and third with one out in the second after a Derek Hill double, but Tristan Peters tried bunting on Robbie Ray. But he had to pull back his first look, which left no element of surprise on the second one. The first baseman Schmitt smothered it, Colson Montgomery didn't break for home, and the result was a feckless 3-4 putout with ninth-hitting Luisangel Acuña coming to the plate. Acuña couldn't salvage the inning, grounding out to third instead.

A similar rally took shape two innings later. Edgar Quero and Hill walked, and Peters bunted both over. Acuña was able to produce a well-struck sac fly that made it a 4-2 game, but Chase Meidroth flied out, so while the Sox were successful in playing for one run, they had half as many runs as hoped for.

They finally swung away in the fifth after Munetaka Murakami and Montgomery walked. Ray's career-high seventh pass was enough for Tony Vitello, who came replaced the lefty starter with righty Keaton Winn. Venable responded accordingly, pinch-hitting Sam Antonacci for Randal Grichuk, who walked to load the bases. Montgomery followed by hitting a tailor-made 4-6-3 ball, but Arraez got handcuffed and had to settle for one out and one run, and Quero's fly ball to left escaped the diving clutches of Jesus Rodriguez to tie the game at 4.

Unfortunately, Antonacci didn't advance on the single, taking a conservative approach since Rodríguez recovered quickly, which meant that Jarred Kelenic's deep fly ball wasn't a productive one. The game stayed tied, until the bottom of the inning.

Bullet points:

*Schultz's final line: 4+ IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HR. He got only one whiff on 33 swings, while twice as many pitches found Arraez's back.

*Meidroth committed an error for the second straight game, but this one was a high-and-wide throw on what should've been a routine play.

*Quero had a positive game, going 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI at the plate, and cutting down a runner at second with a perfect throw in the fourth, helping Schultz to get in and out of it on five pitches.

*This is the second time the White Sox have walked eight times in a game, and they've lost both games. That also goes for Meidroth leadoff homers.

*The White Sox finished their final West Coast road trip 2-4.

*Rikuu Nishida is coming.

Record: 26-26 | Box score | Statcast