Jake Burger hit a liner to center field, but Brandon Marsh was there for the final out to keep the Chicago White Sox trending in the wrong direction.
A 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday in front of 10,149 at Guaranteed Rate Field extended a number of not-so-pleasant numbers for the Sox.
- They’ve lost six of eight and nine of 13.
- After going 2-4 on the homestand, the Sox are 7-12 and in fourth place in the American League Central — four games in back of the first-place Minnesota Twins entering Wednesday evening. Only the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals have more losses in the AL.
- Not only have the Sox yet to win a series (0-5-1), they haven’t won back-to-back games.
“It’s the sentiment throughout this clubhouse with everyone, the passion we have in here, to win and compete, it’s through the roof,” Sox starter Mike Clevinger said. “It’s just putting it all together. I still believe in every person in this clubhouse. It’s early. It’s very early.”
Manager Pedro Grifol tried to keep the tough stretch in perspective.
“Every team I’ve ever been on or a part of, you have streaks like this,” Grifol said. “I trust these guys. I trust the work they are putting in. We just have to keep going, keep battling.”
In each of the last four games, the team’s scoring has been limited to one inning.
The Sox scored four runs in the first inning Sunday in an 8-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
They scored four runs in the third inning of the opener of Tuesday’s doubleheader, falling 7-4 to the Phillies. Burger’s three-run homer in the first served as the only offense during the 3-0 victory in Game 2.
The only runs for the Sox on Wednesday came via Andrew Vaughn’s two-run homer in the first.
“We scored two in the first inning and we couldn’t get nothing going after that,” Grifol said. “These guys aren’t going up there trying to make outs. They are preparing and they are going up there to compete, and it’s not happening.
“Just as it happened the last three days, you know it will turn around. That’s all I can say. It will turn around.”
Grifol said pressing is part of it.
“When you don’t score the runs and you don’t produce like we are capable of producing or we want to produce, there’s always some pressing going on,” Grifol said. “That’s when you’ve got to tone it back a little bit. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we have to just be a little more disciplined in the strike zone and shrink it and not be afraid to hit with two strikes.
“But when you got a guy out there throwing strikes (in Phillies starter Taijuan Walker), with all his pitches, and you are aggressive, you are going to make quick outs.”
Walker allowed two runs on five hits with three strikeouts and two walks in 6⅓ innings. Clevinger suffered his first loss of the season in three decicions, allowing three runs on six hits with one strikeout and one walk in three innings.
“Two missed pitches and they go over the wall,” Clevinger said, referring to solo home runs from Trea Turner in the first and Marsh in the second. “The other ones were kind of good pitches that they either blooped in there or were hit on the ground.
“They executed on those two bad pitches and then the fastball command was a little off. But I thought my stuff was pretty good.”
Clevinger threw 44 pitches while allowing a run in the third inning and left after the inning, having thrown 75 pitches overall.
“They shrunk the zone on him in that third,” Grifol said. “There were some long at-bats. And once he threw that many pitches, there’s no way I could send him back out. He wasn’t tired. He was fighting to go back out. After a 44-pitch inning, I’m not going to send him back out.
“He understood. These starters we got, they want to pitch. And they like to pitch and they aren’t afraid to extend themselves. This one was just a little bit too much.”
Back-to-back RBI doubles from Bryson Stott and Turner in the fourth against reliever Tanner Banks extended the Phillies’ lead to 5-2.
The Sox brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh, with right-handed-hitting Romy Gonzalez called in for lefty Oscar Colás to face left-handed reliever Gregory Soto with two on and one out. Gonzalez flied out to right, and Lenyn Sosa struck out.
The road doesn’t get any easier with the Sox facing the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays on the upcoming trip.
“It’s been some really trying times, but this resilience is where you build some character,” Clevinger said. “Move forward from here.”
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