White Sox take three out of four from Texas Rangers

Yoan Moncada

The White Sox need two victories this week to clinch a winning month, as they improved to 14-11 in August by taking three games out of four from the Texas Rangers over the weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The series featured Yoan Moncada's return to the Sox lineup -- and effective starting pitching from Sox hurlers not named Lucas Giolito, whose turn in the rotation did not come up.

The Sox (60-70) will have an off day Monday before continuing the homestand Tuesday, when they open a three-game series against the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins. But here's a look back at the Texas series:

Thursday, Aug. 22
White Sox 6, Rangers 1: Moncada rejoined the Sox and went 2 for 4 with a two-run homer and a double. The home run highlighted a four-run third inning, which also featured a solo shot by James McCann and a RBI single by Tim Anderson.

Left-hander Ross Detwiler (2-3) had his best outing as a member of the Sox, if not the best outing of his career. He struck out a career-high eight over six innings, allowing only one run on three hits. He did not walk a batter. Sox relievers Jimmy Cordero and Kelvin Herrera combined for three innings of hitless, scoreless relief.

It was a weird night for Texas starter Ariel Jurado (6-10), who tossed a complete game but also got knocked around for six runs on 10 hits.

Friday, Aug. 23
White Sox 8, Rangers 3: Will we look back on this as the night when Dylan Cease turned the corner? We can only hope. Cease (3-6) got off to a terrible start, giving up a 3-run homer to Willie Calhoun in the first inning. But the Sox rookie gave up nothing after that. He pitched six innings, striking out nine and walking only one.

The Sox got to Lance Lynn (14-9), who has been one of the better pitchers in the league -- just not on this night. Lynn surrendered seven runs on 11 hits over 5.2 innings. He did strike out 10, but he took the loss.

Moncada once again was 2 for 4 with a two-run homer and a double. Anderson, Leury Garcia and Jon Jay also had multi-hit games. Eight of the nine players in the Sox lineup had at least one hit.

The Sox bullpen, again, was spotless over three innings. Evan Marshall, Aaron Bummer and Alex Colome combined for four strikeouts and no hits or walks allowed.

Saturday, Aug. 24
Rangers 4, White Sox 0: This is the Sox, so there has got to be one clunker in every bunch, right?

Sox starter Ivan Nova (9-10) cruised through five innings, but Anderson booted a grounder off the bat of Elvis Andrus with one out in the sixth, and moments later, Calhoun homered into the right-field stands to put the Rangers up 2-0. Danny Santana added a two-run homer off Cordero in the seventh, and that was that.

The Sox managed eight hits off Kolby Allard (2-0) and two Texas relievers, but seven of them were singles. Ryan Goins doubled with two outs in the ninth for the Sox's lone extra-base hit of the game.

Sox batters finished 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.

Sunday, Aug. 25
White Sox 2, Rangers 0: It's too bad Reynaldo Lopez (8-11) had to leave this game after five innings with dehydration and flu-like symptoms. He allowed no hits and struck out six while tossing 80 pitches during his outing.

Fortunately, the Sox bullpen covered four innings and finished off a one-hitter. Bummer, Marshall, Jace Fry and Colome each worked a scoreless inning, with Colome earning his 25th save in 26 chances.

Jose Abreu reached 100 RBIs for the fifth time in his six seasons with the Sox. He knocked in both Chicago runs, one with an RBI single in the third, and the other on a fielder's choice in the seventh.

Sox batters couldn't do much with Texas rookie left-hander Brock Burke (0-1), who allowed only one run over six innings. But much like Nova on Saturday night, Burke forgot to throw a shutout and ended up getting beat.