If you’re going to finally win a game, it might as well be against the best. That’s the way Pedro Grifol looked at his woefully struggling team’s tall task of breaking a seven-game losing streak against the best team in baseball.
“I’m not going to tell you I’m in a great place, because I’m not,” the White Sox manager said before his team got walloped 14-5 Thursday against the Tampa Bay Rays in the first of a four-game series at Guaranteed Rate Field. “And I’m glad we’re facing Tampa. We’re facing the best right now in major league baseball. You’ve got to beat those teams if you want to go where you want to go and turn this thing around.”
If this loss demonstrates just how far the Sox are behind the best team, cover your eyes. The Rays (21-5) beat the Sox’ ace and extended the losing streak to eight. At least the Sox snapped a scoreless innings streak at 25 on Lenyn Sosa’s RBI double in the second against Rays ace lefty Shane McClanahan. And Jake Burger hit his team-high sixth homer, then donned a black hat and “Southside” cape in a fleeting fun moment in the dugout.
The rest of the night was more misery. The Sox, surrendered four unearned runs thanks to an error by first baseman Andrew Vaughn and made three other lackluster plays in the field. Cease gave up seven runs on nine hits and two walks in four innings, Jake Diekman gave up five runs (one earned) on two walks and three hits.
There were boos early and often from an announced crowd of 11,060. Some wore bags over their heads.
“We absolutely understand any frustration, dissatisfaction or even finger-pointing that’s coming from outside the organization,” general manager Rick Hahn said before the game. “Absolutely get it.”
Streaks of 10 losses in the last 11 games, 13 of 15 and 16 of 20 will do that. With his team losing by 11 runs in the seventh inning, Grifol got thrown out of the game by first base ump Marvin Hudson after a close play didn’t go the Sox’ way.
Grifol’s Sox are desperate for a win. And yet they cling to the notion that they can still be a playoff team because of all the season that’s left.
“[The goal is] the same as it was when we started the season,” Hahn said. “We felt we had the talent to contend for this division and then make some noise in the postseason. We made our job a heck of a lot harder based on the first 25 games, but the goal hasn’t changed for us.”
“This thing’s going to turn around,” Grifol said before the game. “Just because it hasn’t gone our way, that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop doing the things we feel are necessary to win baseball games.”