Giants blast off (again) in 16-6 romp of White Sox
When the White Sox were heading back to Guaranteed Rate Field after starting the season with a four-game split at Houston, the thought of having utility infielder Hanser Alberto pitch mop-up relief twice in the first three home games was not in the plans.
Unfortunately for the Sox, that's exactly what happened.
Alberto had to pitch the ninth inning in Monday's home opener after the Giants teed off on starting pitcher Michael Kopech in a 12-3 win.
Kopech gave up 5 home runs in 4⅔ innings.
On Thursday afternoon, Alberto got the start at third base, but he was back on the mound in the ninth in another blowout loss to San Francisco - this one 16-6.
Lance Lynn, who started for the White Sox Thursday, last only 4⅓ innings and gave up 3 homers.
"I wasn't good," Lynn said after allowing 8 runs total on 9 hits and 3 walks. "There's no way to sugarcoat it. All and all, it was a (expletive) day."
The offense battled early and kept the Sox in the game, but the Giants broke it open after leading 6-3 in the fourth inning.
"They just didn't miss the pitches they were looking for," Sox catcher Seby Zavala said. "A couple balls down the middle and they didn't miss today. They didn't miss much, this week."
The White Sox did manage to win the middle game of the series, a 7-3 decision Wednesday, but the Giants blasted 13 home runs while they were in town. That's the most homers they've hit in a three-game series since 1961.
San Francisco hit 5 homers Thursday, including J.D. Davis' grand slam off Alberto.
"You know, every mistake we made, they squared them up," Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. "I don't know if that's who they are or they came in hot, I'm not sure. We'll find out. For the most part, in these three games, every mistake we made they made pretty good contact on it."
Even though it's still very early in the season, the White Sox's bullpen has faced a heavy workload.
That's the main reason Alberto has already made 2 relief appearances.
"You've always got to find ways to get through games like this so you don't compromise tomorrow and the next day," Grifol said. "Every game is important, but this is one game. We've just go to make sure we're in a good place to win tomorrow's game and the next day after that. It wasn't a good day but these guys gave us everything they had out there."
After a promising start in Houston against the defending World Series champion Astros, are the Sox are a little down as they head out on a road trip to Pittsburgh and Minnesota?
"It's a long season," shortstop Tim Anderson said. "Just the second series. We've got to keep pushing and not sit in this moment. Embrace it and learn from it and try to do all the things different that we didn't do today."
Anderson and San Francisco starter Logan Webb were yelling at each other during Wednesday's game, apparently over a quick pitch flap.
A day later Anderson was available to discuss it, not that he had much to say.
"I don't really want to talk about it," Anderson said. "You guys have seen what happened. You guys have all the resources that you need to understand the situation. I think we should just keep going and move on and not really make it a topic.
"I think it was a topic yesterday and I'm all about moving forward and trying to find the positivity and flush it, just like today."