Second-inning spiral sinks White Sox in 7-2 loss to Angels

Chase Meidroth and the Sox couldn’t recover after a chaotic second inning, but he did eventually put on sunglasses. | (Meg McLaughlin/Getty Images)

For a minute there in the top of the second when the Good Guys got on the board first, it felt like they might actually take the series. Then the bottom of the second inning happened, and poof, the vibes from the past couple of weeks packed up and left the building.

Chicago dropped the rubber match in a game that unraveled early and never really gave the Sox a chance to get back into it. For a team that has started to look watchable, this one felt like a throwback to the bad old days. By the end of the second frame, it had that all-too-familiar “this is over already” energy.

Rookie Noah Schultz simply didn’t have it. The southpaw hurled his ugliest outing of the season, lasting just 3 2/3 innings while allowing seven runs on seven hits, four walks, and three strikeouts. The command issues highlighted in the Game Thread were immediately evident, and the Angels made him pay.

After working around a leadoff walk in the first — with Drew Romo cutting down Zach Neto trying to steal — things fell apart in the second. A potential inning-ending double play fizzled when Colson Montgomery bobbled the ball before the turn, and then the wheels fell off. Travis d’Arnaud crushed a three-run bomb, Bryce Teodosio doubled, Neto tripled him home, and even a routine pop-up to Chase Meidroth turned into a run when he lost it in the sky. Five runs later, the game had that unmistakable 2024 feel.