If you are going to produce few hits, might as well make them count.
The White Sox chased a morbid offensive effort on Thursday night with one not much better on Friday. The difference? Two of the hits left the yard, and with the sacks close to packed. Or, in other words: Five-hit games don’t result in wins very often — but six-run games sure do.
The key blow came early, as Oliver Dunn stepped to the plate with two on and two out in the second inning. Facing reliever Landon Sims fresh in from the pen, Dunn drove a center-cut, 92.3 mph fastball on 1-0 out 429 feet to right. Anyone questioning the strangeness of batting your designated hitter ninth in the lineup (uh, not me, no way) can pack those three runs home in their pipes and smoke ’em.
Just two innings later, it was Jarred Kelenic blasting another three-run shot, his first long ball with the White Sox. And even in the hot air of Arizona and Spring Training pitching always just one meltdown from defeat, Kelenic’s shot put the game away.
The game was over before its midpoint thanks to some outstanding pitching, as the White Sox arms put forth their best efforts thus far in 2026: Anthony Kay, Tanner McDougal and Noah Schultz took on all but two outs and combined to stifle the Diamondbacks on just four hits. None of the three had dominant K stuff rolling, but the White Sox defense backed each up on balls in play, keeping the game scoreless and the Dbacks frustrated.
Schultz in particular was outstanding, needing just 25 pitches to pocket seven outs. His removal with one out in the ninth rang a bit odd, but perhaps leaving right at 25 tosses meant the White Sox are working off a hard cap of 25-30 throws for the tall lefty rebounding from knee issues in 2025.
With the rout, the White Sox got back to better than .500, at 8-7, and return home tomorrow to take on Seattle in a CHSN/WMVP broadcast game. Leigh Allan (yes, undefeated on his four-game coverage season so far) will have your coverage.
Right after the game, the White Sox announced one demotion to Triple-A and nine other reassignments from MLB camp, none of them surprising: