Sox hitting can't stop Angels doubleheader sweep
Hector Noesi and Scott Carroll were the White Sox' starting pitchers for Tuesday's doubleheader against the Angels' duo of Garrett Richards and Jered Weaver.
Noesi and Carroll came in with a combined 4-9 record and 4.94 ERA.
Richards and Weaver came in at 16-8 with a 3.06 ERA.
While the Sox' offense tried to compensate for the glaring discrepancy, the end result was rather predictable.
The Sox have been outpitched for most of this season, with the exception of Chris Sale games, and the trend continued against Los Angeles at U.S. Cellular Field.
Noesi and the White Sox lost Game 1, 8-4, and Carroll and the Sox went down 7-5 in Game 2.
Noesi, who opened the season with the Mariners, was traded for cash considerations to the Rangers two weeks later and was claimed by the Sox off waivers from Texas less than two weeks after that, was actually no-hitting Los Angeles through 4 innings in the opening game despite issuing 5 walks and throwing 71 pitches.
Staked to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on Jose Abreu's 26th home run of the season - which ties him with Baltimore's Nelson Cruz for the major-league lead - Noesi yielded a 3-run homer to Mike Trout and solo shot to Albert Pujols in the fifth and the Angels never trailed the rest of the way.
Noesi (2-6) was gone after allowing 5 runs on 3 hits and 7 walks in 5-plus innings.
"First of all, from the beginning I didn't feel good," Noesi said. "I left a few pitches up and they got them. I didn't really feel my release point, you know. Seven walks you can see, that's my first time doing that. I was trying to do my best."
Abreu and the offense have thus far kept the season from completely slipping away, but the White Sox' starting rotation and bullpen have been subpar all year.
Noesi, Carroll, Rienzo, Felipe Paulino, Erik Johnson and even John Danks earlier in the year - the starters have not been able to consistently go deep enough into games and that's taken an toll on an inexperienced bullpen.
"Hector actually has been throwing good," Ventura said. "Today was the first time where just locating was the problem. He just walked too many people, got behind. And then you get the middle of the plate, you're going to get hurt, especially with a lineup like this."
Noesi says his goal is going 7 innings every time out, but he's done that just three times in 11 outings.
"It's better to go longer than like 5 innings, you know?" Noesi said. "Like I said, my release point was not good today. Something is going to happen when you do that and you leave a few pitches up."
In Game 2, Carroll (2-5) took the loss after allowing 7 runs on 10 hits and 3 walks in 6 innings.
Abreu extended his hitting streak to 16 games with an infield single in the nightcap, but Conor Gillaspie and Dayan Viciedo did the most offensive damage.
Gillaspie finally hit his first home run of the season, a 2-run shot off Weaver in the second inning, and the third baseman added an RBI single in the sixth.
Viciedo followed Gillaspie's single with a 2-run homer.
After showing some life with three straight wins at Toronto to wrap up an 11-game road trip that concluded Sunday, the Sox (39-46) are back in the AL Central cellar.
"You get yourself in trouble and you put yourself in bad spots," Ventura said after the White Sox dropped both ends of the doubleheader. "It happened in both games."