The Chicago White Sox lost two of three to the Philadelphia Phillies last week at home and then went on the road to play six games. They came back on Thursday, losing all six games on their road trip and everyone knew things weren’t going to get better with a four-game series against the best team in baseball. The White Sox keep finding ways to embarrass themselves, losing the series opener to the Tampa Bay Rays 14-5 on Thursday and then a one-run loss Friday night began with some truly embarrassing defense.
It really is a shame because Lucas Giolito showed up and delivered what you want from your starting pitcher. He played the role of stopper nearly to a tee, but the White Sox still found a way to screw things up. The right-handed starter mostly shut down the best offensive team in MLB, holding the Rays to a pair of runs through 6.2 innings. However, it should have only been one earned run and it possibly could have been the difference between the White Sox breaking their losing streak at eight or having it continue to nine.
It’s the White Sox and it’s 2023, so of course things went bad.
The Rays had runners at the corners with one out in the first inning, when Giolito got Brandon Lowe to pop up to Lenyn Sosa in shallow center field. Yandy Diaz, who leadoff the game with a double and was standing at third base, ended up scoring because Randy Arozarena noticed that no one on the White Sox was covering second base and he took advantage of the mistake and beat Andrew Vaughn to the bag.
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While Arozarena raced to second base, Diaz sprinted home and scored the first run of the game on a pop up behind second base.
The Rays did what great teams do, make you pay for stupid plays. The White Sox did what awful teams do, make stupid plays and get beat because of them.
The White Sox lost 3-2, as right-handed reliever Kendall Graveman gave up a home run to Isaac Paredes to start the top of the ninth inning. It’s sad to say that the White Sox have already reached the moral victory portion of the season because this one-run loss was an improvement over losing five straight games by at least three runs.
But moral wins don’t count in the standings and the White Sox are now 7-20, entering Saturday on a nine-game losing streak. It just goes to show you that yes, things can get worse when you follow an underachieving team. In 2022, it took the White Sox until game 39 to reach 20 losses. This year, they’re already at 20 losses, 27 games into the year and they still have two more games against the Rays to finish out the month of April.
There’s just nothing you can point to right now and say because of this, they’re going to be better. The White Sox are losing, losing a lot and by a lot. At -59, the White Sox have the third worst run differential in MLB, behind the Kansas City Royals and Oakland A’s.
