The weather may have been warm in Miami, but Chicago’s bats? Ice cold. The pitching? Somewhere south of that. The White Sox dropped to 1-5 on the young season after getting thoroughly flattened, 10-0, by the Miami Marlins in a game that somehow felt over before most people had finished their first bite of lunch.
If you were hoping for a clean slate after a rough Opening Day for Shane Smith, well, that hope didn’t last long. The righthander put together a first inning that can only be described as a full-blown
tire fire. Four runs crossed the plate before he could even record a second out, thanks to four hits, a walk, and a throwing error that gifted Miami an extra run. Three earned, one unearned, all ugly. And no, it didn’t get better.
Smith came back out for the second and promptly made things worse. A single set the table for a two-run blast by Liam Hicks, pushing the score to 6-0 and effectively turning this one into a glorified bullpen game before the Sox even had much of a chance to battle back.
Manager Will Venable let Smith wear it into the third, where the Marlins tacked on two more runs via the usual suspects — a walk, a double, a single. By the time it was over, the damage was done, the game was out of reach, and the Sox were left staring at yet another early-game crater.
However, in a contest devoid of many positives, the bullpen at least avoided making things exponentially worse. Lucas Sims, freshly called up, tossed two solid innings with just one hit allowed. Chris Murphy added two frames of his own, though he did surrender the ninth run. And Jordan Leasure, well, he did Jordan Leasure things, giving up the final run in the eighth on a solo shot by Otto Lopez.
Can you call it progress? Technically.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Sandy Alcántara was everything the White Sox were not: dominant, efficient, and completely in control. The Marlins’ ace carved through the lineup with a complete game shutout, allowing just three singles from Chase Meidroth, Tristan Peters, and Luisangel Acuña. Seven strikeouts, zero walks, and not a hint of trouble. Whether that says more about Alcántara’s brilliance or the Sox’s current state is … not a particularly fun debate.
Due to the weather, the Sox will have to wait a bit longer for their Home Opener, now scheduled for Friday at 1:10 p.m. CST. Sean Burke will take the ball for the South Siders, while old friend Dylan Cease will be on the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays, because of course he is.
Strap it in, Sox fans. It’s April, the team is already 1-5, and if this one was any indication, it’s shaping up to be another long, grinding ride on the South Side.
