May 16, 2013; Anaheim, CA, USA; Chicago White Sox first baseman Adam Dunn (32) hits a double against the Los Angeles Angels during the fourth inning at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

Dayan Viciedo walking just isn’t quite the red alert it used to be, but it should be. With the Sox having already rallied and tied the game 4-4 in the eighth inning, Angels reliever Michael Kohn lost all ability to locate his pitches, but to a degree no one could truly understand until he was 2-0 to Jeff Keppinger with the bases loaded and unable to throw fastball below anyone shoulders.

As the ball four buzzed up and in and confirmed Keppinger’s first walk of the season and certainly his most memorable moment in a White Sox uniform, boos rained down on an Angels team that had found an inventive way to blow a two-run lead to the worst offense in the American League, and lose 5-4 to a White Sox team that may just be on a winning streak.

The Angels had done plenty in the eighth inning already to help the Sox to this point. Back-to-back leadoff singles from Alejandro De Aza and Alexei Ramirez turned into runners in scoring position when Mike Trout airmailed a throw allegedly targeted for third. And the pain of a bad Alex Rios strikeout was blunted by the wipeout breaking pitch he failed to check up on skipping 15 feet away and plating De Aza, to bring the Sox within a run, 4-3. With Ramirez at third base, Mike Scioscia drew in the infield against Adam Dunn, only to have him hammer a game-tying single past Howie Kendrick at second base.

The eighth inning rally saved starter Jose Quintana from another ill-deserved loss, after his defense let him down again in a crucial bottom of the sixth inning.

On occasion, Jose Quintana can get into a rut where he sticks to trying to bust right-handers in on their hands. It’s his best skill, but the repercussions to not getting far enough in, especially after multiple trips inside, can be dire. Quintana’s third attempt to bust Howie Kendrick inside in the sixth inning failed as his slider flattened out and was crushed into the left-center field gap. Since it’s Angels stadium, the ball didn’t travel quite as far as the contact sound might have foretold, and was still in reach of a staggering and backpedaling Dayan Viciedo.

Instead, the ball skirted off of Viciedo’s glove, almost as if he had never opened it, rolling off and allowing two runs to score to wreck the back end of Quintana’s night–it was counted as a double–and stake the Angels bullpen to a 4-2 lead.

That was only the second of the three lead changes on the night. An opposite field two-run blast by Albert Pujols in the fourth one-upped the glorious, towering solo shot to left field by Alex Rios in the top half of the inning. But Pujols’ blast only gave the Angels a lead because De Aza was doubled off first on a caught line drive the batter before Rios nailed an inner-half Jerome Williams fastball. It was all an improvement over the first three innings, where Williams had been perfect.

For all the grief the White Sox deservedly get for the defensive execution, Alex Rios has abandoned the two-seamer he used throw out of center field for a more straight-line approach from the corner. In the third inning, he gathered an Erick Aybar single and rifled it home in one motion, and the low bullet skidded barely above the grass and into Flowers glove right as Chris Iannetta’s foot collided with it. Conversely, in the fifth inning, Jeff Keppinger tapped the soft grounder a drawn-in Angels infield was looking for to gun down Conor Gillaspie running home on contact, but Erick Aybar fumbled the transfer to the point where it was floating two feet over his head as the tying run crossed to make it 2-2.

Addison Reed, pitching in front of a multitude of hometown friends and family, worked a perfect ninth for the save.

Team Record: 18-21

Box Score

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

It’s easy to get very carried away, very quickly

Big serious I think a 4 game sweep would be nice ! What do ya think ?

— hector santiago (@HecSantiago53) May 16, 2013

And Hector isn’t helping. But some sustained success, or avenging an embarrassing home series loss against a fairly miserable opponent would go a long way to making open expressions of faith and hope in this team seem more grounded.

Today’s Lineup:

1. Alejandro De Aza – CF
2. Alexei Ramirez – SS
3. Alex Rios – RF
4. Adam Dunn – 1B
5. Paul Konerko – DH
6. Conor Gillaspie – 3B
7. Dayan Viciedo – LF
8. Jeff Keppinger – 2B
9. Tyler Flowers – C

Jose Quintana – SP

Hopefully Dunn and Viciedo are truly made anew because a healthy Conor Gillaspie is the only real difference between this lineup and the group that was shut down by Jerome Williams and repeatedly betrayed Jose Quintana on defense last Saturday.

Instances where two separate series with the same team are so close together that all the pitching matchups repeat themselves really ruins the spice and randomness of the regular season. What can Jose Quintana see when he looks at Jerome Williams but a relic of tortured memories of having to cover first base after inducing a popup to right field. Quintana’s statistical record has a surprising 3.72 ERA and an even more surprising 2-1 given win-loss record seeing that I associate his season with misfortune and woe.

Angels’ Lineup:

1. Erick Aybar – SS
2. Mike Trout – CF
3. Albert Pujols – 1B
4. Mark Trumbo – RF
5. Josh Hamilton — DH
6. Howie Kendrick – 2B
7. Alberto Callaspo – 3B
8. Chris Iannetta – C
9. J.B. Shuck – LF

Jerome Williams, SP

Erick Aybar is back and the Angels apparently feel so good about their shortstop and his career .319 OBP that they’ll continue to keep last year’s MVP runner-up from the leadoff slot where he thrived last season. Josh Hamilton threw out two baserunners trying to score last weekend in Chicago, so it has to be nice to see Mark Trumbo out there for a change. Hamilton’s been making more contact of late, but his season line is still bad enough to wonder what good he is to the team if he’s not playing defense. Hey, remember 2011?

I never know what’s going to happen in these games, guys.

Where to Watch: CSN – Channel Guide

As of late, Jose Quintana, though not a train wreck, hasn’t been so great. His strikeout rate has normalized, and his walk rate has been bouncing around quite a bit. His game logs as far as swinging strikes, zone percentages and all that fun stuff is a mess. I don’t know what to make of it. Part of it is because I’m not that smart, but part of it is just the noise that comprises of a big league baseball season. I no longer have Gavin Floyd to go palms up to and say, “I don’t know what we’re gonna get tonight,” so perhaps I’m just trying too hard to find a replacement. I’m not sure what Quintana we’re going to get today, but the Angels lineup isn’t scary. The 11 hits they provided yesterday were unfortunate, and also spread throughout the team with everybody except for Josh Hamilton (0-5, boy, he sure is broken, isn’t he?) contributing.

Today’s Lineup:

1. De Aza – LF
2. Ramirez – SS
3. Rios – RF
4. Konerko – DH
5. Dunn – 1B
6. Viciedo – LF
7. Keppinger – 3B
8. Flowers – C
9. Greene — 2B

Keppinger is dropped back down into the 8th spot as he isn’t living up to his billing as a high contact guy. His 11% strikeout rate if he continues at this rate will represent the highest of his career. His previous high being a 9.6% rate in 344 plate appearances with the Astros in 2009, a year that he produced a .256/.320/.387 line. He currently carries the unique batting line of .191/.188/.209. Not every day you see a guy with an OBP lower than his batting average. If you want to feel better about Keppinger, chew on this: that 11.1% strikeout rate is the lowest among White Sox batters with at least 20 plate appearances. Pretty neat, huh?

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Lineup:

1. Alberto Callaspo – 3B
2. Mike Trout – CF
3. Albert Pujols – DH
4. Mark Trumbo – LF
5. Josh Hamilton – RF
6. Howie Kendrick – 2B
7. Brendan Harris – SS
8. Chris Iannetta – C
9. Luis Jimenez – 1B

Where to Watch
Today’s White Sox game can be seen on WGN for the Chicago area and Fox Sports West in Los Angeles. The game will be televised on MLB Network for select markets. 6:10 Central start time.