CHICAGO – White Sox manager Will Venable said he’d give a few players a chance to bat leadoff early in the season. On Sunday, it was Nick Maton’s turn after Miguel Vargas was atop the batting order in the first two games.

“Just like the matchup for Nick,” Venable said pregame. “Just trying to stack good things in a row. We like what he brings and his competitiveness and his ability to hit the fastball – we’re going to see a lot of fastballs in the zone, a lot of sinkers today. So we like that matchup for him leading us off.”

Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz gave Maton a 95 mile-per-hour sinker over the heart of the plate, and Maton made him pay with his first career leadoff home run.

First career leadoff homer for Nick Maton 😤 pic.twitter.com/iiWy64a7Yx

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) March 30, 2025

Maton’s home run cut into the Angels’ lead, and catcher Matt Thaiss tied it up four at-bats later with an RBI single to score Luis Robert Jr.