TORONTO — The Chicago White Sox used 10 pitchers — including eight relievers — during Thursday’s doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals at Rate Field, with Game 2 stretching 10 innings.
They used five more in a bullpen game Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, necessitated after Davis Martin went on the injured list earlier that day. Three of those pitchers — Grant Taylor, Dan Altavilla and Tyler Gilbert — worked their second straight day.
Needless to say, the Sox entered Saturday looking for a lengthy outing from starter Aaron Civale.
The right-hander settled in after a sluggish start, going seven innings in the 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays in front of a sellout crowd of 41,488.
“It’s good to pitch deep into games,” Civale said. “It’s not going to be the best box score to look at after, but I think there’s a lot of positives to take from it.
“It’s something I take pride in every time out there, trying to pitch as deep into the game as possible. It’s always a goal of mine.”
Civale allowed five runs on nine hits with two strikeouts and one walk in the 96-pitch outing during his second start for the Sox since being acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers in a June 13 trade for Andrew Vaughn.
“After a tough start there, where he just left a couple of pitches in the heart of the plate and paid for it, he did a great job of settling down,” manager Will Venable said. “And to cover seven innings with where we are at with our bullpen is huge.
“It was one of those days where he just left too many over the heart early, but did a good job of settling in.”
The Blue Jays got to Civale early, with Bo Bichette hitting a home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the first.
The Blue Jays had five hits — all singles — during a three-run second inning. George Springer began the inning with a single and moved to third on a base hit by Ernie Clement. Right fielder Austin Slater tried to throw out Springer at third, but the ball sailed over Josh Rojas’ head and went into the stands. Springer was awarded home on the error.
Davis Schneider collected an RBI with a single and later scored on a single by Nathan Lukes, giving the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead.
Civale bounced back with four consecutive scoreless innings.
“You have to make those quick little adjustments,” Civale said. “If it gets awry early, you have to do your best to lock it back in and just rely on the guys behind you. (Toronto) is a team that has not had much swing-and-miss, so there’s a lot of reliance on the guys behind you and the guy in front of you and that’s just having confidence in those guys.”
Venable pointed to Civale’s experience as key in that situation.
“That’s what you get with these types of guys, they’ve been around and understand what they need to do to be able to reset and get back on track,” Venable said. “He did a great job of settling down and getting back to his game plan and did a good job hitting spots and pitching where he wanted to pitch.
“Just unbelievable to be able to cover seven innings on a day where maybe at the beginning didn’t have his best stuff.”
Meanwhile, the Sox had just one hit — a single by Ryan Noda to begin the game — through five innings against Blue Jays starter José Berríos.
Miguel Vargas began the sixth with a slicer down the right-field line that was just out of the reach of the right fielder Lukes for a triple. Andrew Benintendi then hit a grounder to first. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. elected to throw to the plate, and Vargas avoided catcher Alejandro Kirk’s tag, bringing the Sox within 4-1.
The Sox (24-53) finished with just the two hits while losing for the ninth time in 10 games. Berríos allowed one unearned run on two hits with five strikeouts and three walks in 7 2/3 innings.
“There are times where you just get beat, and today was a good example,” Venable said. “Our game plan with Berríos was to get him up and he just lived down in the zone. He was hitting his spots, both edges and really pitched a great game.
“When a guy does that with his ability, it makes it tough on our guys. That’s one of those where you just have to give him credit.”
Guerrero homered with two outs in the seventh against Civale, stretching the Blue Jays’ lead back to four.
The eighth inning featured a memorable moment for Sox reliever Jacob Palisch. One day after being called up from Double-A Birmingham, the lefty allowed two runs on three hits (including two infield hits) in his major-league debut.
“It’s a dream come true walking out there,” said Palisch, who signed with the Sox as an undrafted free agent out of Texas A&M in July 2022. “It’s a pretty intense feeling. A couple of unlucky breaks, but I’m proud of myself for — one, getting to this point, and two, being able to work through a couple tough at-bats and get the first one under the belt.
“It was a lot of fun. It’s something I’m going to remember and cherish forever.”