Miguel Vargas turned Friday night against the Dodgers into a statement, reaching base four times and driving in the go-ahead run with a two-run double in a seven-run fifth inning as the White Sox rolled to an 8-2 win at Rate Field. Chicago, which had trailed 2-1, blew the game open in one burst and never let it come back.
The matchup drew attention because Vargas was facing his former team, and he was at the center of everything Chicago did once the inning cracked open. Santiago Espinal had given the Dodgers a 2-0 lead with a two-run single in the second, but the White Sox answered in the fifth and kept piling on after that, ending a game that had looked tight early. Anthony Kay earned the win after the White Sox backed him with a surge that shifted the night in one swing.
Roki Sasaki was the pitcher who absorbed the damage. He walked three batters in the fifth and allowed seven total runs over 4 1/3 innings, a collapse that followed a stretch in which he had not walked more than two hitters in any of his previous eight starts. The White Sox turned those free passes into a rout, and their relievers finished by retiring the final 19 Dodgers batters.
There was also a notable absence in the Dodgers lineup, with Shohei Ohtani not starting because of left knee inflammation. That mattered because the Dodgers arrived with enough offense to build an early lead, but they could not answer once Chicago seized control. The series opener at Rate Field ended with the White Sox looking like the team that handled the pressure better, while the Dodgers were left to sort out a game that unraveled in one inning.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was scheduled to start for Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon against Sean Burke, giving the Dodgers a quick chance to move past the defeat. After what happened Friday, though, the bigger question is whether they can keep another close game from turning the same way once the middle innings arrive.
