Somehow, that’s what happened on Saturday as the Sox took a host of Toronto pitchers deep seven times — all of the solo variety — but still fell short in a 10-8 defeat.

Miguel Gonzalez vs. R.A. Dickey essentially turned into a round of batting practice for White Sox and Blue Jays hitters, but Dickey came out the better as, despite four of the solo home runs coming off of him, he only allowed three other baserunners while Toronto strung together multi-run efforts against the inconsistent Gonzalez, who spent his afternoon missing over the heart of the plate. Doing that against the Blue Jays’ juggernaut offense usually spells disaster.

Gonzalez has done his part to earn the No. 5 spot in the White Sox rotation, but his inability to consistently hit his spots is the reason he’s now sandwiched a six-inning, one-earned run effort around a pair of clunkers, Saturday’s being an eight-run, five and third-inning outing in which he walked more hitters (3) than he struck out (2).

He dug himself into an early hole when, after retiring Ezequiel Carrera to lead off the game, he allowed five-straight batters to reach as Toronto scored three quick runs, punctuated by three-straight doubles by Edwin Encarnacion, Michael Saunders and Troy Tulowitzki. The damage could have been worse if not for Toronto running into an out at the plate on a nice J.B. Shuck-Brett Lawrie rally.

The 3-0 deficit quickly grew in the bottom of the second when, after Gonzalez walked No. 9 hitter and Dickey Personal Catcher Josh Thole (two of the three walks Gonzalez issues were to Thole), he missed badly on an 89-mph slider over the middle of the plate and Devon Travis crushed it for a two-run homer.

The bottom of the White Sox order was up to the task against Dickey, however, and the five-run deficit quickly became two in the bottom half of the frame when Lawrie, Dioner Navarro and Shuck went back-to-back-to-back, the first time the Sox hit three-straight homers in a game since 2009.

Dickey’s knuckleball was unhittable at times, and made some batters (hello, Tim Anderson) look downright foolish, but when he rolled one, Sox hitters took advantage with four solo home runs, the fourth being Lawrie’s second homer of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The deficit kept growing as Gonzalez struggled, however, as prior to the fourth solo shot of the day, the Blue Jays tacked on another three runs in the top of the fourth when he walked Josh Donaldson with the bases loaded and Encarnacion dropped a two-run single over the head of Lawrie to score a pair.

Toronto’s offense from that point stalled despite the depleted Gonzalez failing to get through six innings. Chris Beck and Dan Jennings combined to throw 2.2 innings of shutout baseball in relief. That lull allowed the Sox to make the game interesting as the fireworks continued, with Anderson taking Drew Storen deep and DH-for-some-reason Alex Avila doing the same to Jason Grilli. Again, both solo homers.

The only non-homer run the Sox scored on the afternoon was an RBI single by Lawrie in the sixth. The homers and effort by Beck and Jennings brought the score to 8-7, but that’s where things unraveled, as Toronto’s offense touched up Michael Ynoa for two insurance runs in the top of the ninth to basically deflate all hopes of a comeback attempt. Adam Eaton’s solo shot in the bottom of the ninth — which tied a franchise record — didn’t make a difference.

Deflating is a good word for the game as a whole. Too often this season (and, really, over the last several years) have we seen solid pitching performances go for naught as the offense slumbered. On Saturday, the offense had one of its best efforts of the season, only to see the pitching finally succumb to a Toronto team it had fared well against through the first four meetings of the season.

Seven home runs and a loss? Unthinkable. The White Sox keep coming up with new ways to surprise.

Team Record: 37-38

The next game is at 1:10 p.m. Sunday against Toronto on WGN, with Chris Sale set to take on Marcus Stroman.

Lead Photo Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

1. When is the last time the White Sox offense made Chris Sale Day a side attraction? Facing familiar punching bag R.A. Dickey, the Sox slowly turned a leak into a flood, clinging to a 1-0 lead off a titantic Avisail Garcia home run into the fifth inning, and ending the night with 15 total hits, including at least one for every member of the batting order. The huge offensive night was the Sox first double-digit run effort of the young season, and gave the night off to a bullpen that’s been saving a lot of closely-fought pitching duels so far this season.

2. A big part of that night off was Sale, who cruised through eight easy innings of one-run ball in what is becoming reliably weird fashion. Sale spent most of the night with his fastball sitting 89-92 mph, seemingly looking to grab early strikes against a patient Blue Jays lineup, but that hardly explains all of his weirdness. He somehow worked his pitch-to-contact wizardry while his command was demonstratively failing him in the early going, and he walked two batters in the first two innings after not issuing a single free pass in his last two starts. Typically a master inducer of ugly swings, five of Sale’s six strikeouts on the night were looking, and four of those were batters staring at his loopy slurve.

Even when Sale looks hittable, or does inadvisable things like live by the flyball in the Rogers Centre against these Jays, they work for him this season. A seventh-inning moonshot by Edwin Encarnacion was the only proof that Toronto hitters were even allowed to hit Sale.

3. Garcia’s big night was part of a devastating barrage for the bottom of the Sox order. Garcia and Dioner Navarro both homered, and Austin Jackson finally had a big hit fall in with runners on when his double split the right-center gap with the bases juiced in the fifth.

The trio at the bottom of the lineup went 7-for-11 with two home runs, two walks, six runs and six RBIs. That’s usually a good sign a beatdown is going on.

4. Jose Abreu hardly looks out of his funk, but muscled an opposite field double to the wall, and picked up an RBI on a bounced turf single, which is more success than most get during the clear cut worst stretch of their career. Demotion candidate Garcia has passed him in OPS for the year.

5. Sale has never won five games in a single month before. He has two months where he’s posted an ERA better than his current 1.66 mark.

Team Record: 15-6

Next game is Wednesday at 6:07 p.m. CT at Toronto on CSN

Sale has given us a bit of a different look to start the season. The velocity is there when he wants it, but he’s changing speeds much more and gives the impression that he’s making an attempt to pitch to contact. He’s off to an excellent start, having only allowed seven total runs in his four starts, and walking virtually nobody. His last outing against the Angels stood out, as he went seven innings, yielding just two hits and he only struck out three batters. That last piece grabbing the most attention – he’s had starts of three or fewer strikeouts before in the past, including a two strikeout outing against the Royals last April – but none had quite the same effect, as most other instances included large amounts of hits with some free passes and a handful of long balls. The Blue Jays are not an easy team to pitch against, and last year they were the squad that ended his streak of 10-plus strikeout games. Despite that accomplishment on their end, Sale hasn’t had a great deal of trouble with them in his few appearances, and we should all be interested to see what method of destruction he chooses to dismantle with on this occasion.

Knuckleballers are a weird bunch. After leading the league in strikeouts during his Cy Young-winning season in 2012, R.A. Dickey was dealt to the Blue Jays and has yet to recapture any of that success. He’s existed since mainly as a league average pitcher, but one who follows the knuckleballer blueprint to average: superior starts mixed in with absolute junk starts. You never know what you’re going to get day-to-day with Dickey. Thus far this season, it’s been leaning towards the junk starts. He’s logged 20 innings over his four starts and the main accomplishment of that is only having allowed a single home run. Teams have found other ways to score on him, though, tallying up 14 of the earned variety to date.

The White Sox offense is showing signs of sustained life. The occasional, and often well-timed bursts that have carried them to their current 14-6 record have obviously proven to be enough in the games they’ve played, but the reality is that they are nearly dead last in the American League for offensive production, narrowly edging out the Angels. Not everybody is coming up short, five everyday players are producing at above league average rates, but the ones that are not come up well short of an acceptable performance. Most unfortunate of which is Jose Abreu, currently sporting a .223 TAv.

Kevan Smith‘s unfortunate injury prior to his MLB debut last night has landed him on the disabled list. Hector Sanchez has been called up to take his place on the roster, but hopefully Dioner Navarro experiences a day of full health and he won’t be needed this evening.

White Sox Lineup:

1. Adam Eaton – RF
2. Jimmy Rollins – SS
3. Jose Abreu – 1B
4. Todd Frazier – 3B
5. Melky Cabrera – LF
6. Brett Lawrie – 2B
7. Avisail Garcia – DH
8. Dioner Navarro – C
9. Austin Jackson – CF

Blue Jays Lineup:

1. Michael Saunders – LF
2. Josh Donaldson – DH
3. Jose Bautista – RF
4. Edwin Encarnacion – 1B
5. Troy Tulowitzki – SS
6. Kevin Pillar – CF
7. Matt Dominguez – 3B
8. Darwin Barney – 2B
9. Josh Thole – C

Lead Photo Credit: Nick Turchiaro – USA Today Sports Images