The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Chicago White Sox 8-3 on a night that mixed a blowout with a few odd twists, extending their winning streak to five straight games before 10,193 fans. The White Sox trailed 8-0 after eight innings and only avoided being shut out for the third time in their last nine games when Reese McGuire, who had thrown a 1-2-3 ninth on nine pitches, later drove in a run with an RBI single.
Sam Antonacci made his major league debut for Chicago and got a hit in his first plate appearance, then drew a walk in his last trip and scored the White Sox's first run of the night. He also played errorless second base, though he was cut down trying to advance on a ball in the dirt, a reminder of how thin the margin is for a rookie still learning the speed of the game.
Antonacci said afterward that it was a learning moment and that it is the big leagues now, adding that a player may get away with that kind of read in the lower minors but not here. White Sox manager Will Venable said Antonacci has had some really good at-bats and can look really locked in at times, but this was one of the nights when he was not feeling it out there. Venable also said Antonacci lost track of the strikes and lost track of the count.
The White Sox offense spent most of the night handcuffed by Jesse Scholtens, while Sean Burke allowed a solo home run to Junior Caminero. Andrew Benintendi had Chicago's lone extra-base hit through eight innings, a triple off Scholtens, before the game finally loosened late. In one of the strangest moments, McGuire became the first White Sox pitcher to hit safely since Hanser Alberto in 2023, after finishing the ninth on the mound and then adding the RBI single at the plate.
Chicago entered the game having lost seven of its last nine, and the Rays made sure the slide kept going. For a club trying to find traction, the bigger concern is not just the loss itself but how few clean innings it is stringing together, with a rookie debut and a pitching cameo offering the night's only real reasons to keep watching.
