SAN FRANCISCO — The White Sox actually tied it. Down three in the fifth inning, they scratched back to 4-4 on a Colson Montgomery groundout and an Edgar Quero single, and for a moment there was something to work with.
Then San Francisco sent up four batters in the bottom of the same inning, and Rafael Devers hit a grand slam off Grant Taylor that landed 391 feet away in left-center. Eight to four. Game over.
The Giants beat Chicago 8-5 on Sunday at Oracle Park to take the series two games to one. The White Sox finished a 2-4 road trip through Seattle and San Francisco and are back at .500 heading home.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| SF | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 8 | 11 | 0 |
Schultz Hits Arraez Twice and Pays for It
Noah Schultz hit Luis Arraez in the lower back in the first inning. Then he hit him in the same spot again in the fifth. The Oracle Park crowd booed him off the mound.
The second plunking opened the fifth inning with Willy Adames already on second base. Schultz was pulled — one batter too late, some would argue — and Grant Taylor came in and walked Casey Schmitt on nine pitches to load the bases. Devers stepped in and hit Taylor's first pitch to the opposite field. Grand slam. His eighth career and his first as a Giant.
It was the second time this series that a grand slam put the game out of reach before Chicago could respond.
Schultz's final line: 4 innings, 6 hits, 6 earned runs, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, 70 pitches. His ERA is now 5.82. He struck out just one batter all afternoon, which is not a profile you want from a young starter who needs swing-and-miss to survive. Hitting the same batter twice in the same spot is just bad luck — but the results that followed will stick.
He's 22 years old and from Oswego, Illinois. He's homegrown. This is the kind of start you file away and move on from.
Ray Was Terrible and It Didn't Matter
Robbie Ray walked seven White Sox in four innings — the most walks by a Giants starter since Tim Lincecum in 2013, and a career high. He allowed just two hits. Three of those walks came around to score.
That's an impossible performance profile to understand in the moment — seven free passes, a guy who clearly couldn't find the plate, and Chicago still only managed four runs against him. Chase Meidroth led off the game with a home run on Ray's eighth pitch to give Chicago an early 1-0 lead, and the White Sox pulled back level in the fourth on Luisangel Acuña's sacrifice fly. But Chicago couldn't turn the walks into enough damage.
By the time the White Sox tied it in the fifth, Ray was already in the clubhouse. Four batters later, Devers hit a grand slam and that was effectively that.
The Schmitt-Devers Combination
Casey Schmitt and Rafael Devers combined for all eight San Francisco runs and four of the Giants' eleven hits. Schmitt doubled home Adames in the first, Devers doubled home Schmitt in the same inning, and the ink was barely dry on the scorecard from Meidroth's homer before the Giants were back in front.
In the third, Schmitt hit his 11th home run of the season — a 2-run shot to left-center at 398 feet — to push the lead to 4-1. It was his third homer in four days. Then in the fifth came the slam.
Devers finished with five RBIs. Schmitt had three. Between the two of them, that was the whole game. The Giants' other nine batters drove in zero.
Devers' grand slam was San Francisco's third in a seven-day span — Harrison Bader hit one against the Athletics last weekend and another in this very series on Saturday. Per the team, it's only the third time in franchise history the Giants have hit three slams in a seven-game stretch, matching a mark that dates to 1924.
Vargas Has Something Going
Miguel Vargas hit his 12th home run of the season in the seventh inning off Matt Gage — a solo shot to left, 378 feet. It was the third homer of the series for a Chicago lineup that otherwise couldn't do much with what this pitching staff gave them.
Vargas is quietly building something. He walked twice, scored twice, and is now hitting .244 with 12 HR and 31 RBI on the year. That's the start of a real season from a guy who needed one.
Pitcher Stats
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | HR | PC-ST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schultz (L, 2-4) | 4.0 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 70-45 |
| Taylor | 0.1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 16-9 |
| Davis | 1.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 26-20 |
| Domínguez | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 15-10 |
| Eisert | 1.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 28-17 |
| Ray | 4.0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 92-47 |
| Winn (W, 1-1) | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 29-21 |
| Gage | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9-8 |
| Miller (H, 6) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11-7 |
| Kilian (S, 3) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 16-10 |
What's Next
The White Sox open a homestand Monday against the Minnesota Twins. Anthony Kay (3-1, 4.27 ERA) starts for Chicago opposite Zebby Matthews (1-1, 1.38 ERA) for Minnesota. First pitch is 1:10 p.m. Central.