Junior Caminero, Jake Fraley and Jonny DeLuca homered to back five shutout innings from Jesse Scholtens and boost the visiting Tampa Bay Rays to an 8-3 victory against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
Tampa Bay stretched its winning streak to five games while sending Chicago to its fourth loss in the past five. The White Sox avoided their fourth shutout of the season with three runs in the ninth.
Scholtens, who pitched for the White Sox in 2023, benefited from the run support in a bulk relief effort. The right-hander improved to 1-0 with five innings of one-hit ball with two walks and three strikeouts.
DeLuca helped put things out of reach with a pinch-hit three-run home run against White Sox reliever Tyler Gilbert. Yandy Diaz delivered an RBI double one batter earlier.
Rays opener Cole Sulser scattered three hits, one walk and one strikeout in two scoreless innings. Making his major league debut, Chicago second baseman Sam Antonacci singled to right field against Sulser to lead off the second inning. The White Sox added two hits in the inning but didn’t score.
Caminero smacked a solo home run against White Sox right-hander Sean Burke to give the Rays a 1-0 lead in the third.
Tampa Bay widened its lead with a pair of fifth-inning runs on a Caminero groundout and Jonathan Aranda double. Fraley led off the sixth with a solo homer. Burke (0-2) faced two more batters before leaving the game. He spaced four runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings with three walks and two strikeouts.
McGuire, who spent the first eight innings at catcher for Chicago, needed just nine pitches to work a perfect ninth. He contributed an RBI single against Ian Seymour in the ninth among his two hits.
Munetaka Murakami singled and walked twice for the White Sox.
The game started after a delay of approximately 12 minutes as National Anthem performer Gerald Chaney experienced a medical emergency. Chaney was transported to a nearby hospital for additional evaluation and treatment and is “doing well,” the White Sox announced.
