That number never had a chance. Atlanta scratched across single runs in the 3rd and 7th and made it stand up, while Chicago's offense — even at home, even fresh off salvaging the Crosstown finale — never found a rhythm against Holmes.
Atlanta out-hit Chicago 8-to-1 and turned a White Sox error into enough breathing room that Kay's own line barely mattered by the end. It's the kind of quiet, definitive final that buries a rough week under one relief-manufactured shutout.
The result matches the form both sides carried into the day: Atlanta arrived 1-4 in its last five, still working through a 3-game skid built in Minnesota, while Chicago came in 3-2 with a win in its last outing after clawing back to salvage the Crosstown finale. The final score just extended both trends by one more game in exactly the direction each was already trending.
Neither club is fully healthy, and neither is hiding it. Atlanta's bullpen is still nursing Robert Suarez and Reynaldo Lopez back from injury, and its rotation depth chart reads like a hospital wing. Chicago has its own list, from Davis Martin's finger to Joey Bart's fractured hand, but it didn't matter Thursday — the White Sox simply couldn't buy a hit, and a first-place NL East club made sure of it.