'I hate losing': White Sox frustrated with slow start

CHICAGO -- There was talk, following the 3-2 White Sox loss to the Rays on Friday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, of the fight and energy that the South Siders have shown.

Quite frankly, though, those intangibles have seemed absent in the team’s past three contests.

Fight and energy ultimately mean very little when a team is mired in a nine-game losing streak, as the White Sox are. Their 7-20 record marks their worst start to a season since an identical run in 1950, as they dropped nine games behind the Twins in the American League Central.

“Everyone’s trying, but trying doesn’t get the job done. We’ve got to do it. We’re not, so it’s frustrating,” starting pitcher Lucas Giolito said. “I hate losing. I'm going out there trying to win these games. I know we're all trying, but we've got to do it. We've got to turn this thing around.

“It [stinks]. There aren't too many words to describe it. … I have faith in these guys, faith in myself. We've just got to try and put it together.”

Giolito put it together Friday, allowing two runs on eight hits over 6 2/3 innings with six strikeouts. The first run was earned, but Giolito didn’t exactly deserve it, as a defensive lapse allowed the Rays (22-5) to score in the first.

With runners on first and third and one out, Brandon Lowe hit a pop up to second baseman Lenyn Sosa in shallow center. Sosa briefly looked Yandy Díaz back to third, but with both Sosa and shortstop Elvis Andrus tracking Lowe’s fly ball, there was nobody covering second base.

Randy Arozarena, the runner on first, broke for second, and Sosa threw the ball to first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who had taken off to cover the empty base but wasn’t in position yet. As Vaughn caught the ball, Díaz broke for home and scored without a play.

In this instance, both execution and results were off the mark.

“Mental mistakes against championship-caliber teams,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “You don’t win like that.”

Asked whether Sosa should have held Díaz at third and given up second, Grifol made it clear that at the very least, that option should have been the worst-case scenario.

“That’s not the way the fundamentals work,” Grifol said. “If two guys go for it, shortstop has priority and second baseman covers the bag, and you’ve got both places covered. It’s pretty simple. Last case scenario, you throw a ball to home plate and preserve the runner at third base.”

After the Rays tied the game at 2 in the 4th, it stayed knotted until the 9th, when Isaac Paredes homered off Kendall Graveman to lead off the frame. The White Sox put two runners on base with two outs in the bottom half, but Luis Robert Jr., mired in a 5-for-54 slump over his last 14 games, popped out against Kevin Kelly to drop the White Sox to 3-8 at home.

A frustrated Graveman, who also allowed a solo home run to Díaz on Thursday, took full responsibility for Friday’s setback.

“I have to do my job tonight,” Graveman said. “Battled our tails off to get to that point. The team is fighting, and I didn’t think I necessarily executed badly. But he was better than me in that moment.

“Tip your hat to him. But at the end of the day, this comes down to results. It doesn’t matter about execution. You can make a great pitch and not get the results you want, or you can make a terrible pitch and get a good result. I’m over the execution part. Just get results … The boys fought and we had a chance at the end and kept fighting. I’m solely responsible.”

Graveman’s assessment seems a bit harsh. The White Sox finished 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, scoring on home runs from Vaughn and Jake Burger.

Grifol was ejected for a second straight game -- and for the second time in three innings -- by umpire Marvin Hudson when he argued both benches being warned after Zach Eflin hit Robert in the first inning, on the first pitch following Vaughn’s homer. Grifol understood the letter of the rule, but didn’t believe that his pitchers should be restricted from throwing inside just because Eflin had hit one of his hitters.

Grifol did believe in Giolito’s outstanding effort on Friday, although the White Sox came away empty and frustrated once again.

“When we’re going good, we’re relaxed, we’re having fun,” Giolito said. “It’s hard to do that when you’re losing.

“It’s just finding that balance. I think we get one win here this series, hopefully tomorrow, [and] win another one Sunday. Then we can get something going, start to creep back.”