Noah Schultz struggles again as punchless White Sox fall to Red Sox

Left-hander Noah Schultz had another rough outing in his second start since returning from the injured list.

Schultz allowed four runs, seven hits and three walks in five innings in the White Sox’ 8-1 loss to the Red Sox at Rate Field. He gave up a solo home run to Andruw Monasterio and a two-run shot to Ceddanne Rafaela in the second, both on sweepers.

“I felt I had good command, good feel for the cutter,” Schultz said. “But this is a lineup that I wanted to go heavy offspeed. Not being able to land the sweeper or changeup as much as I’d like to [was] definitely frustrating.”

Schultz, who was on the injured list for just over a month with tendinitis in his right knee, allowed three runs, two hits and four walks in 4⅓ innings in the White Sox’ 6-1 loss to the Orioles on July 1. He also had seven strikeouts.

In 10 starts this season, Schultz has a 6.00 ERA (32 earned runs in 48 innings) with 29 walks and 43 strikeouts.

“A lot of things to work on,” he said. “Walks have been pretty high, something that I’m not too happy with. Something I need to clean up for sure with mechanics and finding out my identity as a pitcher with pitch mixes and seeing what to throw most and figuring out different lineups and how to attack them.”

Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle did a great job attacking the White Sox with his fastball. He allowed two hits and one walk in six innings and struck out six.

“He’s got a really good fastball, and he commanded it well and really beat us in the zone with it,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Saw a lot of foul balls; just weren’t able to move anything forward. Then he was able to get to the offspeed stuff, as well.”

After Tolle left, the White Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh but scored only once. Kyle Teel drove in the run on a fielder’s choice. The Red Sox then turned to right-hander Justin Slaten, who struck out pinch hitter Jacob Gonzalez and Tristan Peters to end the threat.

Sam Antonacci had three of the White Sox’ hits, all against left-handers (lefty Danny Coulombe followed Tolle). He entered the game batting .149 against lefties.