SAN FRANCISCO – The top of the fourth inning started innocuously enough for the White Sox during their series opener against the Giants on Friday night at Oracle Park.
Sam Antonacci and Munetaka Murakami were hit by Trevor McDonald pitches and Colson Montgomery ended an 0-for-14 funk with a 3-foot single he couldn’t have rolled down the third-base line any better. It was simply the opening taste of their upcoming fun.
By the time the inning was complete, McDonald was out of the game, 13 hitters had come to the plate and the White Sox scored nine on their way to a 9-4 victory. White Sox starter Davis Martin entered the game with a 1.61 ERA, so four or five runs would have worked on this night.
But the White Sox didn’t stop.
Chase Meidroth forced home the game’s first run with a five-pitch walk, followed by Andrew Benintendi’s two-run double. Edgar Quero’s fielder’s choice grounder scored a fourth, when second baseman Luis Arraez made an ill-advised throw home after making a diving stop. Derek Hill ended McDonald’s evening with a two-out single to right for a 5-0 lead.
McDonald retired the first nine hitters he'd faced entering the fourth, but was pulled with an out still to get. Murakami delivered a three-run, bases-clearing double to left off reliever Ryan Borucki, who was in 2026 camp with the White Sox in Arizona.
That bases-loaded situation was made possible by Antonacci once again being hit by a pitch, marking him the first player in White Sox history -- and the ninth Major Leaguer in at least the past 50 years -- to be hit by a pitch twice in the same inning.
Since the start of the 2025 season between the Majors, the Minors, Spring Training, Arizona Fall League and the World Baseball Classic, Antonacci has been hit by a pitch 57 times.
This run support helped Martin improve to 7-1 overall, although he wasn’t at his sharpest after the nine-run rally.
Martin’s streak of six straight starts with one run or fewer allowed and eight straight with two runs or fewer allowed came to a close, as the Giants scored three in the fifth and one in the sixth. He struck out seven, walked two and recorded 16 swings and misses, according to Statcast.
Those nine runs in the fourth were the most in one frame scored by the White Sox since they knocked home 11 in the second on May 7, 2023, at the Reds in a 17-4 victory.