Between a starting pitcher who didn't have it from the get-go and a lineup that fell silent after the third inning, tonight was the pessimist's case against the White Sox. They've lost games by bigger margins in 2026, but few games have provided worse viewing experiences.
The easiest way to sum it up is that White Sox pitchers threw 214 pitches, good for their second-highest total of the season. Another way to put it: Two pitchers were asked to wear it, and even that didn't prevent Luisangel Acuña from having to get the last out.
José Urquidy, who set the tone at Wrigley Field with an extremely relaxed six scoreless innings last Wednesday, established opposite vibes in this one by needing 38 pitches to complete the first inning. He was spraying everything, loading the bases over the course of the first four batters with two walks and a two-strike HBP. He almost got out of the inning with an Ezequiel Durán grounder to short, but it was hit too slowly to turn two, and Evan Carter's double made it a 2-0 game before Urquidy could shut the door.
The White Sox's pitching portion of the evening ended with Trevor Richards being pushed to the brink in hopes of completing three innings, no matter how ugly they looked, only to see his 61st pitch of the night end up over the left field wall for a two-run homer that necessitated Will Venable bringing in Acuña to close it out, which he did on three pitches.
In between were a number of interminable innings, made longer by the Sox's inability to record the third out. The Rangers scored nine of their 11 runs with two down, and the second inning best demonstrated the torture. Urquidy retired the first two batters on six pitches, then needed 21 pitches over the next five batters to get the third out. He could've gotten out of it one batter sooner -- and scorelessly -- had Chase Meidroth not slipped rounding off a grounder on the shortstop side of second, thudding to the ground and bloodying his jersey with a forearm wound. Instead, the Sox fell behind 3-1, which ensured they'd spend the entire evening trailing.
Urquidy was done after a third grueling inning that put him at 93 pitches, which was the same total that Texas starter Kumar Rocker threw over six innings.
The most charitable way to phrase the White Sox's offensive effort is that they made Rocker work harder this time around. Granted, Rocker threw six innings of scoreless, one-hit ball in their last meeting, but there was a greater sense of pressure, at least early. Tristan Peters homered for the third consecutive game, a two-run shot in the second inning, and it would've been the second two-run shot in as many innings had Brandon Nimmo not thwarted Andrew Benintendi's bid with a leaping catch at the wall in the bottom of the first. Instead of a potential 4-3 lead, the Sox still trailed 3-2, and the margin only swelled from there.
Their last best chance at a crooked number came in the third, when Munetaka Murakami singled, and Miguel Vargas and Braden Montgomery loaded the bases with walks over the next three batters. But Colson Montgomery struck out on four pitches, even though the first two pitches were thigh-high fastballs on the outer half. Chase Meidroth then negotiated a full count with Rocker, with the two strikes being fastballs, and the three balls being non-competitive sliders. Despite the sixth pitch of the bat being in the latter category, Meidroth chased it to leave the sacks packed.
Rangers pitching ended up retiring 10 in a row before Meidroth snapped the streak with a bases-empty walk in the sixth, but then the Rangers picked right back up and retired the final 10 batters to close it out. Rocker, Robby Ahlstrom and Jordan Montgomery needed only 132 pitches, or 82 fewer than the White Sox threw, to give an idea of the time-of-possession disparity.
And the innings the White Sox pitched offered various indignities. Tyler Schweitzer managed to post a zero in the fourth, but then gave up a leadoff homer to Jake Burger in the fifth. He nearly got out of it with no further damage, but a pair of two-out doubles put another Rangers run on the board, with Braden Montgomery and Peters arriving at Corey Seager's double to the right center gap at the same time, and both overrunning it.
In the sixth, Huascar Brazobán walked Durán with one out, and when Drew Romo cut down a stolen base attempt at second, Brazobán then walked Carter, who scored when Jake Burger's line drive to center took a left turn at Albuquerque and split the gap instead. Richards then came in the seventh, which seemed an inning too early for him to finish the game, and that proved to be the case. The first inning went fine, but then he gave up a run via a pair of very wild changeups in the eighth, and ran out of gas one batter short of his 22nd game finished. Acuña picked up his third instead.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox fell eight pitches short of their season high of 222 in their 5-3 loss to the Rays back on April 16 ... except the White Sox were a Seranthony Domínguez meltdown away from winning that one.
*Colson Montgomery went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, with a foul popout in his final at-bat providing the respite from the whiffing.
*Joc Pederson was ejected in the second inning after being denied a challenge by home plate umpire Chris Guccione on a strike three in the second inning, and barking about it from the dugout when subsequent challenges were granted.
*Urquidy only got four whiffs on 40 swings, which might be why Pederson was irked about being one of his two strikeout victims.
