CHICAGO -- Carlos Rodon had been on a roll entering Saturday's contest with the Red Sox, but struggled to keep the momentum as the night progressed against Boston's lineup.
After facing just two over the minimum through four clean innings, Rodon gave up two solo homers in the fifth and ran into further trouble in the seventh, giving up a season-high-tying five runs (four earned) as the White Sox fell, 6-1, to the Red Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
"It seemed like they were sitting fastball and then changeup, reacting to those two," Rodon said. "Good-hitting ballclub, made the right adjustments, went deep into counts versus me [in the] late innings."
In that pivotal seventh, Rodon nearly found a path out of the Red Sox's rally. With one out and two runners in scoring position, Rodon induced a ground ball back to the mound from Andrew Benintendi. But Rodon threw the ball wildly to first baseman Matt Davidson, allowing a run to score and the inning to continue.

"You never know what happens if you get that out," Rodon said. "You face [Steve] Pearce, and if we get the same ground ball, infield's back with two outs and Tim [Anderson] at short is solid as hell, so he probably makes that play. But you never know, it could go different against Pearce, the way they were approaching the at-bats later in the inning, it probably would've been a deeper count."
"He went out into the seventh with our desire to get him through that," manager Rick Renteria said. "Obviously it didn't end up coming out the way we wanted it to. But he gave us a chance, and he kept grinding. Sometimes you got to overcome deficits like that, and we just didn't do it."
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Pearce knocked Rodon out of the game with an RBI single, and J.D. Martinez tacked on another run charged to Rodon against Ryan Burr before Burr got Xander Bogaerts to ground into an inning-ending double play. Rodon took his first loss since June 30, striking out four against two walks over 6 1/3 innings.
Rodon indicated the biggest at-bat of that seventh inning came against Christian Vazquez, who worked a leadoff walk on eight pitches.
"Big walk there to Vazquez; it was a tough at-bat," Rodon said. "I knew I had to get that out in the seventh, because I knew I had Jackie [Bradley Jr.] coming up next, and he was seeing the ball well off me. Just knew I needed to get Vazquez out there."

Bradley hit one of the two home runs off Rodon in the fifth, and he also tripled off Rodon in the third inning. Rodon, a North Carolina State alum, said he never faced Bradley, a South Carolina grad, in college but the outfielder rightfully earned a reputation.
"You knew the name, man," Rodon said. "You knew that name, knew he could hit it."
Saturday proved a speed bump for Rodon, who posted a 1.84 ERA over his previous nine starts (63 2/3 innings), all quality starts. He had emerged as a potential ace, regularly going deep into games and throwing more than 100 pitches -- the kind of pitcher the White Sox felt they drafted when they took him third overall in 2014.
Rodon's outing marked just the second time since the beginning of July he allowed three or more runs. Though his recent hot streak could make it easier for him to bounce back, Rodon said he just has to "turn the page" first.
"Things like this happen, you just gotta clear it. It's hard, but it happens," Rodon said. "Right now I just can't believe I did that. But I did it."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Unlucky sevens: Following Rodon's error in the top of the seventh, the White Sox had an opportunity to score some of the runs right back. Davidson and Yoan Moncada led off the bottom half of the inning with consecutive singles, and Ryan LaMarre moved them over with a hard groundout that ate up Mitch Moreland. But Omar Narvaez and Yolmer Sanchez struck out swinging to end the threat. The White Sox did not have a baserunner after that inning.

SOUND SMART
Sanchez has now reached base in a career-high 20 straight games after an infield single in the sixth. The third baseman is hitting .307 with five doubles, one homer and 12 walks during that span. He's recorded a hit in 16 of the 20 games.
UP NEXT
The White Sox conclude their four-game homestand with the Red Sox at 1:10 p.m. CT on Sunday, when they'll send James Shields (5-15, 4.54 ERA) to the mound. Shields gave up two runs in 5 2/3 innings against the Yankees in his last start. Christopher Johnson (4-3, 4.02) goes for Boston.