ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Dane Dunning had a career-high 11 strikeouts, All-Star shortstop Corey Seager hit a two-run homer in his first at-bat coming off the injured list and the Texas Rangers maintained their slim lead in the AL West with a 11-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night.
Dunning (9-4) had retired 20 batters in a row, the last five of those strikeouts, before No. 9 hitter Seby Zavala's two-out homer in the eighth inning for Chicago's first runs in three games. That was only the third hit allowed by Dunning, who walked only one against his former team.
The Rangers went ahead to stay on Seager's 16th homer in the first inning, when he pulled a shot to right-center for a 2-0 lead off Dylan Cease (4-5). Seager added an RBI single for the first of five runs the Rangers scored in the second, when Travis Jankowski’s two-run double made it 7-0.
Marcus Semien and Josh Jung also hit two-run homers for Texas (62-46), which was 3-6 while Seager was on the IL with a sprained right thumb.
The White Sox (43-66) lost for the 11th time in 14 games to fall 23 games under .500 for the first time since being 62-100 at the end of the 2018 season. They were coming off consecutive shutout losses, and had gone 27 innings without scoring before Zavala's seventh homer.
Cease allowed seven runs on seven hits over 1 2/3 innings, the shortest outing in his 113 career starts, coming a day after trade deadline passed with him still in a White Sox uniform. He is 1-2 over his past 12 starts, but gave up two earned runs or less in seven of them.
A loss in Seager's return would have dropped the Rangers into second place in their division for only the second day this season. They still have a half-game lead over reigning World Series champion Houston (62-47), which completed a three-game sweep of Cleveland earlier Wednesday.
The White Sox began the game with back-to-back routine groundouts to Seager before loading the bases on two singles and a walk. Dunning, who made his MLB debut with the White Sox in 2020 before being traded to Texas for Lance Lynn after that season, didn't allow another base runner until the homer by Zavala on his 101st and final pitch.
SHORT HOPS
White Sox manager Pedro Grifol was ejected by home plate umpire Adam Hamari in the middle of the third inning. It was unclear what led to Grifol's fourth ejection this season. ... Semien's 16th homer was confirmed on replay in the sixth after Chicago challenged the play. The ball skimmed the inside of the left-field pole when coming down.
TRAINER’S ROOM
White Sox: Closer Liam Hendriks, who made a comeback this season from cancer, had surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. The typical recovery time after Tommy John surgery is 12-14 months, which means the right-hander could miss all of next season. His procedure was done in Texas by Rangers team physician Dr. Keith Meister.
Rangers: INF Brad Miller was placed on the 10-day IL because of a strained left hamstring when Seager was activated.
UP NEXT
Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, acquired last weekend from the Mets, makes his Rangers debut in the series finale Thursday. The 39-year-old right-hander, the active leader with 3,314 career strikeouts, was 9-4 with a 4.01 ERA in 19 starts for New York this season. RHP Touki Toussaint (1-3) pitches for the White Sox.
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