Grand slams sink White Sox’ West Coast road trip but not their momentum

SAN FRANCISCO — Take away a couple of big swings by their opponents, and the White Sox likely would have had a better shot at breaking even or better on their third West Coast road trip of the season.

Then again, take away a couple big innings for the Sox’ offense, and they just as easily could’ve been swept out of both Seattle and San Francisco.

That’s how it goes for .500 baseball teams, a category this still-rebuilding but freshly competitive Sox squad is getting used to, and clinging to, heading into Memorial Day after three years of cellar-dwelling incompetence.

Rafael Devers' grand slam off flamethrower Grant Taylor put the damper on the Sox' rubber-match on Sunday, as rookie starter Noah Schultz struggled in an 8-5 loss, dropping the Sox to 2-4 on their westerly sojourn.

"There's some stuff that we didn't execute situationally where we we did before, so we'll continue to go to work on that stuff," manager Will Venable said. "We've got a big homestand here with some divisional opponents, so just got to get to work. But [it was] a road trip in which we were a win away from feeling pretty good about it, but weren't able to get it."

Things started off promisingly for Sox leadoff man Chase Meidroth, who crushed the eighth pitch of his at-bat against Giants starter Robbie Ray for a home run to left-center.

But Schultz ran into early problems with a leadoff walk to Willy Adames, who scored on Casey Schmitt’s double. Devers then clanked another RBI double off the right-field bricks at Oracle Park. Schmitt later clubbed a two-run homer off Schultz in the third inning,

Luisangel Acuna’s sacrifice fly scored Derek Hill in the fourth, and San Fran pitchers walked the bases loaded to open the fifth. The Sox tied the game 4-4 on an RBI groundout from Colson Montgomery and a single from Edgar Quero.

Venable called it a day for Schultz (six runs on six hits with a walk and a strikeout) in the bottom of the fifth after serving up a double to Adames and plunking Luis Arraez for the second time in the game.

But Taylor, the Sox’ second-year reliever, didn’t fare any better, walking the bases loaded and serving up a mammoth grand slam to Devers. It was the first big league homer surrendered Taylor, whose fastball velocity was down a tick in San Francisco.

Miguel Vargas hit a solo shot, his 12th of the year, to narrow the gap for naught in the seventh inning, a day after his two pop-up snafus sans-sunglasses set the stage for a Harrison Bader grand slam. That salami broke a close game wide open on Saturday for the Giants as well. The Sox won Friday’s series opener on a nine-run fourth inning, but were hitless the rest of the game.

The only game they eked out in Seattle came courtesy of a ninth-inning rally capped by two RBI infield singles.

"We’ve been playing a lot of really good baseball over the last few weeks," Taylor said. "No one is hitting the panic button."

Nearly a third of their way through the calendar, the Sox have exceeded expectations at 26-26, good for second place in the wide-open American League Central, four and a half games back of Cleveland and holding a wild-card spot, for those looking far too prematurely at such things. And perhaps most surprisingly, the Sox are only two and a half games behind the free-falling Cubs.

After three straight springs that saw the Sox effectively out of contention before the charcoals were lit for holiday grilling, they're aiming to make a statement at home with their first matchups against the Twins and Tigers.

"We all expected to be in this situation," Taylor said. "We’ve been .500-plus the past few games — we’ve always been looking forward to that. We are trying to be in the postseason. We are trying to win games in October.

"So to be at Memorial Day and be .500, that’s on the right track from where we were in the past," he said. "Keep pushing and keep getting better."