Sox offense, bullpen suffer jet lag in 6-1 setback

Sam Antonacci had an up-and-down night, on both sides of the ball. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images Just like the rest of us, the White Sox had to get up on Monday and go to work, and just like most of us, they played with some lethargy after a possibly overstimulating weekend, dropping a quiet 6-1 loss to the Mariners on Monday night to open a six-game West Coast swing. It drops them to 24-23 on the season, and two games back of the Guardians in the AL Central after their 8-2 win earlier in the evening.

The Sox had a chance to strike early, when Sam Antonacci singled to lead off the game against Bryan Woo. Munetaka Murakami followed it up with a relatively easy walk that could have applied a load of early pressure on Seattle’s ace. Unfortunately, Antonacci had already gotten a little bit greedy and stymied the potential rally with a foolish out on the bases as Murakami hit.

The bats went quiet for the remainder of the inning. On the other side of the ball, the hope was that Noah Schultz could set the pace early. While he didn’t make too many mistakes, Julio Rodríguez isn’t the kind of hitter to miss a mistake.

It thus took just two hitters into the bottom of the first inning for the Sox to fall behind, as the All-Star barreled up a sinker and took it over the right-center field fence for a 1-0 lead. View Link Things got a little spicier in the third inning, when a pair of judgment call umpiring decisions made Antonacci’s night worse, helping put a second run on the board for the Seamen and Will Venable in the locker room. First, there was a negated inning-ending double play when what initially appeared to be a smart snag-and-drop by Antonacci was instead ruled a catch on the fly, keeping the inning alive long enough for Randy Arozarena to shoot a double down the left field line.