White Sox three homers not enough vs. Jays

Renteria finds bright spots in Chicago's second straight loss to Toronto

April 4th, 2018

TORONTO -- The White Sox could not keep pace with the Blue Jays and their relentless offense on Tuesday night in Toronto.
Chicago kept things close through the middle innings, but its bullpen allowed the floodgates to open in a seven-run eighth inning that capped the 14-5 loss. White Sox pitchers combined to allow 15 hits, 10 of which went for extra bases.
"We kept chipping away the whole ball game," said White Sox manager Rick Renteria, who was happy with the effort his team showed late despite the deficit. "We just weren't able to contend today. The pitching had a little bit of a difficult time today. Other than that, I thought we still battled."
Starter allowed five earned runs over five innings in his first start of the season, including eight hits, two walks and four strikeouts. Two of those hits left the park for home runs as the veteran right-hander caught the middle of the plate too often.
"A couple of bad pitches, I left them up," Gonzalez said. "They're good hitters, they capitalize on mistakes. I just need to do a better job next time."
was a bright spot for the White Sox with a home run, two singles and three runs scored. Anderson also stole second and third base in the same sequence, moving him to 28-for-31 on stolen-base attempts in his young career.

Renteria believes that the White Sox will need more all-around offensive performances like Anderson's to succeed this season, especially against stronger pitching when the team cannot rely solely on the long ball.
"We have to be able to generate run-scoring opportunities and executions through runners on third, advancing runners, things of that nature," Renteria said.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
No stopping Diaz: The White Sox had no answer for Blue Jays shortstop , who left the game late with back spasms. Before his departure, Diaz homered, doubled, and singled. His three RBIs and two runs from the No. 9 spot helped to turn Toronto's lineup over and kept Chicago from regaining any momentum through the middle innings.

"The story of the day was that their offense was pretty good," Renteria said. "You've got to tip your cap to them, they continued to grind."
Donaldson does it again: If it were up to Josh Donaldson, the White Sox would stay in town for a couple more games after Wednesday's finale. Donaldson's two-run home run in the fourth inning was his second of the season, and marked the fifth consecutive game that he's homered against the White Sox. According to Statcast™, Donaldson's shot on Tuesday was measured at 360 feet and the ball left his bat at 94.7 mph.

SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the White Sox surrendered a single, double and triple in order before Donaldson's home run capped off the team's single-inning cycle.
GARCIA BLASTS OFF
now owns the farthest home run hit in the Majors this season after his 481-foot blast in the fifth inning. Only eight home runs were measured farther in the entire 2017 season, and it is the farthest hit by a White Sox player since Statcast™ was introduced in 2015.

Renteria couldn't recall seeing a home run struck as well as Garcia's in person.
"It was a pretty impressive blast," Renteria said, "just from standing in the dugout and watching it. Anybody who is a fan of baseball must have been impressed by that shot."
FOUR STARS FOR ENGEL
made a four-star catch in the third inning on a fly ball to the gap. Engel raced over to make it look easy, but the ball had a catch probability of just 41 percent. He covered 68 feet in 4.1 seconds to make the play.
WHAT'S NEXT
will take the mound for the series finale in Toronto at 6:07 p.m. CT today, marking his sixth Major League start. Fulmer posted a 3.86 ERA over 23 1/3 innings with the White Sox last season, but will need to find the plate early as he's walked 4.6 batters per nine innings in his Minor League career.
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