Chicago White Sox starter Noah Schultz surrenders 2 home runs in 8-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox
Chicago White Sox starter Noah Schultz escaped a first-inning jam Tuesday at Rate Field without allowing a run.
But the Boston Red Sox got to him with two home runs during a three-run second inning. Schultz allowed four runs over five innings in an 8-1 loss.
“Felt I had good command and good feel for the cutter, but no offspeed stuff to go along with it,” Schultz said. “Wanted to go heavier offspeed, but not being able to land the sweeper or changeup as much as I’d like to, definitely frustrating.”
The White Sox began their final homestand before the All-Star break by collecting just four hits — three of them singles by Sam Antonacci, the other an infield hit by Junior Perez — in front of 25,392.
“It’s all about the fastball with him,” White Sox manager Will Venable said of Boston starter Payton Tolle, who allowed two hits and struck out six in six scoreless innings.
“He’s got a really good fastball. He commanded it well and beat us in the zone with it. Saw a lot of foul balls. We just weren’t able to move anything forward. Then he was able to get to the offspeed stuff as well.”
The Sox suffered consecutive home losses for the first time since April 25-26 against the Washington Nationals. They wrapped up their previous homestand with a 5-4 loss to the Kansas City Royals on June 28.
Despite Tuesday’s defeat, the White Sox (47-43) remain alone atop the American League Central standings. They still hold a one-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians (47-45), who lost 3-1 to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday.
Schultz faced some challenges Tuesday from the start as the Red Sox loaded the bases with one out in the first inning. The lefty struck out Romy Gonzalez, a former White Sox, swinging. Caleb Durbin then lined out to right field.
He ran into trouble with one out in the second inning, surrendering a solo home run to Andruw Monasterio.
Connor Wong singled and scored on a two-out, two-run home run by Ceddanne Rafaela, stretching Boston’s lead to 3-0.
“Noah struggled with command a little bit,” Venable said. “A couple of sweepers in zone for the homers I know he wishes he had back. Again, not as crisp as we’ve seen from him. Just continuing to struggle with a little of the command and some of these longer innings where he’s laboring through extra baserunners. He has to tighten it up.”
Schultz allowed seven hits, struck out three and walked three while falling to 2-6. He has a 6.00 ERA in 10 starts during his rookie year.
“A lot of things that I definitely need to work on,” Schultz said. “The walks have been pretty high, something that I’m not too happy with. Something that I need to clean up for sure with mechanics. I think I’m finding out my identity as a pitcher with pitch mixes and seeing what to throw most and figuring out different lineups and how to attack them.”
The White Sox couldn’t mount much of an offensive attack. Their best scoring chance came in the seventh. Trailing 4-0, they loaded the bases with no outs against reliever Danny Coulombe. Kyle Teel grounded into a fielder’s choice, bringing in one run. Boston reliever Justin Slaten then struck out Jacob Gonzalez and Tristan Peters to limit the damage.
The Red Sox broke the game open with four runs in the ninth. The inning featured a sequence where third-base umpire Nestor Ceja initially signaled foul on a ball near the line hit by Willson Contreras before quickly switching the call to fair. Two runs scored on the double.
“He obviously pointed the wrong way (initially),” Venable said. “He acknowledged it was a mistake, but we were just talking about whether it was challengeable or not. Where it landed, it was in front of him so it wasn’t challengeable.”
It was just one of those nights for the White Sox, who are aiming to go to the All-Star break on a positive note.
“This is one of the bigger weeks of the season,” Antonacci said. “We can set ourselves up for a good All-Star break and put ourselves in a good position in the division. We’re right where we need to be, we just need to finish strong. The All-Star break will come. We can’t look forward to it. It’s just part of it.
“We know it’s in the forecast, but you’ve just got to push through and grind these games out and then reset and have a great second half.”
