By Morris Phillips

Michael Kopech and the White Sox need a day off. Lucky for them, they’ll get one on Tuesday.

Kopech might need to get his neck checked and the Sox just need a reset after the visiting Giants ruined Opening Day on the South Side with seven home runs, including four off Kopech in the fifth inning alone.

Kopech was rendered to some incredulous reactions as he became the first pitcher to give up five home runs to the Giants in one game since 1987. The Giants went on to win easily, 12-3 at sold-out Guaranteed Rate Field.

The occasion was no doubt unexpected after the Giants were shut out on Thursday and Sunday at Yankee Stadium. But the outburst made it clear the Giants will be home run happy again in 2023 despite not landing home run king Aaron Judge in the off-season.

“That Sunday loss really left a bad taste in our mouth,” said David Villar, who connected twice. “We wanted to come out here and get things rolling.”

Villar was joined by Michael Conforto, Mike Yastrzemski, Joc Pederson, Thairo Estrada, and Bryce Johnson in the homer deluge. Johnson’s was the first of his Major League career, and Conforto’s his first as a Giant after missing the entire 2022 season due to a shoulder injury.

And even more impressive than the seven home runs by the visitors? The return of Anthony DeSclafani, who pitched six, scoreless innings to secure the win. DeSclafani appeared in just five games last season before he was shut down due to an ankle injury and won for the first time since October 2021.

“It felt like I was just throwing strikes with everything,” DeSclafani said. “The two-seam, the slider, I guess you could call them the keys to the game.”

DeSclafani even had time for an ego-driven argument/non-argument with Andrew Vaughn, who may have disagreed with the pitcher’s pitch selection on a 3-0 count with a runner on in the second inning. All we know is DeSclafani was quick to defend his choice of a slider that resulted in a harmless ground-out by Vaughn.

The White Sox were left to provide almost all the answers afterwards as their clunker followed an impressive weekend in Houston against the World Series champion Astros in a four-game split.

Manager Pedro Grifol promised his staff would look to see if Kopech was tipping his pitches or was hurt by a decrease in velocity within his pitching stint, which may have led to the five homers he allowed. Either way, the Giants have reclaimed their personality of a homer-hunting ball club with or without a crew of name-brand sluggers in their lineup.

The three-game series resumes Wednesday with a marquee matchup of Logan Webb and Chicago’s Dylan Cease.