After getting outhomered 4-2 in their loss to the Mariners to open the series on Friday, the White Sox retook the lead in that particular category tonight.
Colson Montgomery put the White Sox ahead with a first-inning blast off Luis Castillo, and Miguel Vargas padded the lead further with a pair of no-doubters, the second coming on the plate appearance of the season.
Meanwhile, Anthony Kay picked up Sean Burke with five sturdy innings, and because Will Venable's best setup men came through, he didn't end up needing his closer. The White Sox snapped a three-game skid in comfortable fashion, and Seranthony Domínguez will be available if needed for the rubber match on Sunday.
"Anthony was really effective in the zone," said Will Venable. "We saw some chase on the changeup. We thought the fastball really set the changeup up. Was able to steal some strikes with the sweeper early in the count, so just really good stuff by Anthony and the guys behind him as well."
The White Sox's first two homers were two-run shots, and in both cases, Sam Antonacci set the table from the leadoff spot. He opened the bottom of the first with a single, stole second, then advanced to third on Munetaka Murakami's fly to right. Vargas couldn't cash him in, striking out on high fastballs, and Castillo tried to do the same to Montgomery. He got to a 1-2 count with that strategy, but when he tried one more, he didn't get it as high as he wanted. Even though it was well located on the inside corner, Montgomery was geared for heat, got the barrel around, and sent it into the Miller Lite Landing for a quick 2-0 lead.
Two innings later, Antonacci happily dipped his hip into a 2-2 fastball to take his base. After Murakami struck out, Castillo tried starting Vargas with a sinker, and Vargas showed why he should've stayed high, golfing it 410 feet out to left field to double the margin.
"It makes it a little bit more important of getting on base," Antonacci said. "Solo home runs, they make the game a little different there. With a runner on base in those situations, it’s key. It doesn’t matter how you get on, but trying to get them more RBIs."
Two innings after that, Vargas produced his masterpiece against Josh Simpson. He fell behind 0-2, but nine more pitches followed, including five foul balls. The last of those fouls came on a sinker that was nearly identical to the one he took deep against Castillo. The 11th pitch of the at-bat was another two-seamer, but a smidge higher. Vargas converted the second chance into the hardest hit of his career, a 112.9 mph screamer into the left field seats, topping his previous best by more than a full tick (his 111.7 mph homer off Merrill Kelly on April 21).
"I just want to be a good hitter out there, I want to swing at strikes and hit the ball as hard as I can," said Vargas, who always deflects attempts to brand him as a power hitter. "I don't want to focus about hitting homers or anything like that. Especially days like today, I got a 2-2 count, I just want to put the ball in play, and I got the hardest ball of my life. I just don't want to do too much. Swing at strikes and whatever happens, it's out of my hands."
That homer didn't matter greatly in terms of Win Probability Added, but it answered for the lone Mariners run in the top of the inning. Kay started the fifth in a shaky fashion by walking Mitch Garver, and Murakami compounded problems by fumbling a chopper in hopes of getting the out at second, when he should've taken the out at first. A sac bunt moved both runners up, and while Rob Refsnyder hit a sac fly to left, a great sliding catch by Antonacci made it easy to accept a run for an out, and Kay closed out the inning by freezing Cal Raleigh on a 3-2 sinker to cut the rally short.
The run was unearned, which means that Kay lowered his ERA below 5.00 for his five innings (4.89). He changed his attack in a couple of ways: His sinker replaced his four-seamer as his fastball of choice, and by getting ahead on 14 of the 21 hitters he faced, he was able to use the sweeper more than any other pitch.
"Just getting ahead 0-1, 0-2, 1-2, that’s the biggest thing they’ve been harping on from the beginning of spring training, and I think these last two outings I’ve done a pretty good job of it," Kay said. "You have more room to wiggle when you’re ahead, so I think getting ahead 0-1 kind of leads you to, not nibble a little bit, but you can use your secondary a little bit better and be out of the zone a little bit more."
A couple of innings felt shaky, but less because of Kay's pitching, and more because of the White Sox defense, Kay included. He threw wildly after fielding a Garver swinging bunt to start the third, putting the leadoff man on second. He then walked the ninth hitter to turn over the lineup, but a pair of groundouts stranded both runners.
Murakami joined Kay with an error later, and both corner outfielders contributed misplays. Jarred Kelenic kinda-sorta yielded to Murakami on a foul ball down the right field line, when an assertive effort might have produced an out. In the eighth, Antonacci dropped a Naylor fly ball down the line. It was originally called a foul ball, and while neither broadcast seemed to have a conclusive angle, New York overturned the call into a single, rather than an E7.
But it wasn't all bad. Along with Antonacci's sliding catch, Edgar Quero cut down Julio Rodríguez at second to end the first inning, and then Murakami turned an easy 3-6 double play on Naylor in the fourth. The White Sox held their nemesis to a 1-for-4 performance, and it should've been hitless.
Bullet points:
*Edgar Quero came into the game 0-for-25 against lefties before shooting a single through the right side against Simpson in the seventh. He nearly got another hit in the eighth when hit looping fly ball with the bases loaded deflected off the glove of a sliding Refsnyder, who was just as much trying to avoid a collision with the second baseman, but Naylor recovered it in time to get the force at second, so it merely produced a run-scoring fielder's choice.
*That said, the extra run allowed Tyler Schweitzer to close it out, which he did in 1-2-3 fashion. It completed a scoreless night for the bullpen, as Grant Taylor handled the sixth and seventh, and Bryan Hudson the eighth.
*The White Sox were just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, but Montgomery's first-inning homer was a productive "1." The Mariners were 0-for-5.
*Home run celebrations in the White Sox dugout are getting weird.
Miguel Vargas battles an 11 pitch AB and crushes one for his 2nd homer of the game #whitesox pic.twitter.com/psw6kwmnzp
— Brooke Fletcher (@BrookeFletcher) May 10, 2026
"It’s like the second time I’ve done that," Antonacci said. "Just told [Kyle Teel] one tie act like you got me on a leash. I know Vargy likes to bark a little bit, so just doing anything to get the boys going."
Vargas likes to bark like a chihuahua after home runs, so Antonacci is going for a different timbre.
"My bark is like a lion. Lions bark."
Vargas was dismissive of such a characterization.
"Lion? He's not even close to being a lion. He's probably a little cat."
