Scherzer beats White Sox in his Rangers debut
ARLINGTON, Texas - Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer settled down after a shaky start to win his debut for the AL West-leading Texas Rangers, striking out nine over six innings and getting some help from his new teammates as they beat the White Sox 5-3 on Thursday.
Four of the first five Sox batters reached base in a 3-run first inning when Scherzer (10-4) threw 37 pitches. Tim Anderson and Andrew Benintendi both blooped opposite-field singles on 0-1 counts from Scherzer, who then struck out Andrew Vaughn before consecutive walks - the second to Yasmani Grandal to force in a run. Scherzer then picked up another strikeout and had a 0-2 count before Gavin Sheets grounded a 2-run single up the middle to put the White Sox up 3-0.
The Sox then had three singles in the second, though Scherzer benefitted from a double-play grounder and an inning-ending strikeout to prevent any more runs.
Sox starter Touki Toussaint (1-4) struck out nine and walked four in his 5⅓ innings.
Scherzer, acquired from the New York Mets in a trade over the weekend and signed through next season, allowed 7 singles and walked two. The right-hander retired 13 of the last 14 batters he faced, with 7 of his strikeouts coming in that span. A week after his 39th birthday, he threw 70 of 105 pitches for strikes, with 21 of those swing-and-miss strikes.
"Typical experienced star that ends up giving up 3 runs in the first and kind of settles down and understands that he's got to keep us right there and allow his team to come back," White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said of Scherzer.
Mitch Garver led off the Rangers' fourth against Toussaint with a 457-foot homer into the second deck of seats in left-center to tie the game at 3. Three batters later, Marcus Semien homered for the second game in a row, his 17th of the season, a solo shot that put Texas ahead to stay.
Garver added an RBI single in the eighth as the Rangers completed a three-game sweep. The White Sox, who have lost 18 of 24 overall, had scored only 1 run combined in their previous three games before that 3-run first inning.
Will Smith worked the ninth for his 19th save in 21 chances. That came after Josh Sborz and Aroldis Chapman, the hard-throwing reliever acquired in a trade from Kansas City more than a month ago, worked scoreless innings.
Josh Smith had an RBI double in the second for the Rangers, and Adolis Garcia extended his AL-leading RBI total to 86 with his single in the third.
White Sox center fielder Trayce Thompson, reacquired last week from the Dodgers in the trade that sent Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly to Los Angeles, was reinstated from the 60-day injured list (oblique strain) and started in his return.
Up next for the Sox: Mike Clevinger (4-4, 3.59) pitches against his former team in the opener of a three-game series at Cleveland.