White Sox 8, Cubs 3: Just like they drew it up

Back at the start of Cactus League play, Sam Antonacci made an early impression when he flipped his bat on an extremely hard-hit homer off Jameson Taillon, and Austin Hays tagged Taillon for a solo shot in his second and final inning of work, which he didn't complete.

Neither Antonacci nor Hays victimized Taillon tonight, but four other White Sox maintained the sky-high HR rate by blasting five of them over five innings. MIguel Vargas set the tone immediately with a three-run homer three batters in, and Munetaka Murakami (twice), Colson Montgomery and Andrew Benintendi joined in the fun.

The outburst supported Davis Martin, who lowered his ERA to 1.61 with six innings of one-run ball, which in turn extended his streak of allowing three earned runs or fewer to 18 starts. With the stars coming to play, Will Venable could give the high-leverage sector of his bullpen the night off, so it'll be rested if they're needed in Sunday's rubber match.

The White Sox came into this one with a favorable matchup on paper, and not just because of that one spring start. Taillon came into this one allowing 11 homers over 45⅔ innings, and it played out in practice from the jump. Sam Antonacci's one-hop rocket ate up Matt Shaw for a leadoff single, Murakami walked, and when Taillon left a 1-1 sinker up and over the plate to Vargas, Vargas socked a no-doubter into the left field bleachers to set a rout in motion.

Taillon ended up giving up four more four-baggers before his evening was through, and most of them to the usual suspects. He tried his best to stay away from Murakami by walking him on outside pitches in the first inning, and when he tried the same strategy in the third, he left an elevated changeup on the outside corner, and Murakami took it just left of center for his 16th homer of the season, landing just beyond the reach of a leaping Pete Crow-Armstrong. Two batters later, Colson Montgomery torched Taillon for the longest home run of his career, with the only doubt being whether it stayed fair as it hit off the facing of the stadium club. The call stood after a challenge, and the White Sox led 5-0.

Taillon had few issues with the bottom of the order, but when the top of the lineup came around a third time, he experienced a third round of pain. Antonacci floated a single to left field to open the fifth, followed by Taillon piping a fastball to Murakami, who got all of it with a moonshot to the seats in right center to extend the lead to 7-0. Andrew Benintendi then added insult to injury with a solo shot in the fifth.

Martin didn't need all that support, but it allowed him to pitch even freer and easier than usual. He went nine up, nine down the first time through the order, assisted by Tristan Peters robbing Matt Shaw of a potential inside-the-park homer with an outstanding diving catch in the third.

The Cubs made Martin sweat a little more after one look, but partially because he threw strikes and forced the hitters to get him in trouble, and they could only do so much. Miguel Amaya was the only one who truly damaged him, getting enough of an 0-1 slider to pull it over the left field wall for a solo shot to start the sixth, but that merely made the score 7-1. The Cubs had more in mind after Michael Busch singled with one out and Alex Bregman doubled him to third, but Martin got Ian Happ to chase a sinker below the zone for the second out, and got Seiya Suzuki to chase a full-count slider into the left-handed batter's box for his seventh and final strikeout on his 91st and final pitch of the night.

Benintendi ended up getting that run back, so Will Venable could use two low-leverage relievers the rest of the way. Brandon Eisert made it a little tense in the sevneth when he loaded the bases with a pair of walks and a single with just one out, but Nico Hoerner's fly ball to right wasn't deep enough to do anything, and Busch grounded out to second. Trevor Richards pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, and while he gave up a two-run shot to Crow-Armstrong in the ninth, he managed to record the final six outs without requiring another reliever, which was the primary objective.

Bullet points:

*Murakami regained the AL lead in homers with 17. Kyle Schwarber leads all of baseball with 20.

*Martin tied Mark Buehrle with his 18th consecutive start allowing three or fewer earned runs. Eric King of all people is the most recent White Sox pitcher with a longer streak, posting 22 starts between the 1989 and 1990 seasons.

*Home plate umpire Brian O'Nora left the game in the fourth inning after taking a Kelenic foul tip to the lower part of his mask. Erich Bacchus replaced him behind the plate after a 13-minute delay, and three umpires handled the remainder of evening.

*The midgame switch partially explains why the Sox and Cubs went 5-for-5 in challenges.

Record: 23-22 | Box score | Statcast