White Sox Take Care of Business in 12-2 Rout Over Baltimore

White Sox take care of business against one of the worst teams in the MLB with a rout on the road to open their three-game series in Baltimore.

The Chicago White Sox were able to put their loss on Sunday behind them with a 12-2 rout over the Baltimore Orioles on Monday night. Manny Banuelos made his first start for the White Sox and pitched well.

However, the story of the game was backup catcher James McCann. The veteran catcher who signed a one-year deal as a free agent this past offseason had one of his better games in MLB. McCann went 3-for-5 with four RBIs in the Sox win over the Orioles to begin a three-game series that will conclude the current road trip.

The bottom of the order for the Sox was effective throughout their game on Monday. Yolmer Sanchez also collected three hits. This is great news for him as he started the season off roughly and many Sox fans began to lose hope in the second baseman. Ryan Cordell went 1-for-5 with an RBI double.

With Banuelos starting his first MLB game since 2015, he would pitch four scoreless innings and gave up five hits. The Sox weren’t able to score until the fifth inning when McCann hit a three-run home run. This was very important as Banuelos had just previously gotten out of a bases-loaded, no out jam in the fourth inning. McCann’s signing this past offseason was questioned by many Sox fans but he’s been more effective than starting catcher Welington Castillo to start this season.

McCann wasn’t the only Sox player to go deep on Monday night. Jose Abreu would hit his third home run of the season and 150th of his career in the seventh inning. Abreu has gotten off to a rough start to his sixth major league season. He would finish Monday however, with two hits and five RBIs. Hopefully, this can be the start of a turnaround for the veteran first baseman.

The win for the Sox improves their record to 9-12 on the season. This is a much better start through 21 games for the Sox than last season. Last season after 21 games, the Sox were 5-16 and well on their way to a 100-loss year. The franchise might not have made any major signings during the offseason, but the rebuild appears to be going in the right direction.

On Tuesday, the Sox will continue their road series with the Orioles. Ivan Nova will start for the Sox. Nova is still looking for his first win of the season as he’s been fairly inconsistent to start his 2019 campaign.