Jiménez after G2 loss: 'We're going to fight'

CHICAGO -- A forgettable fifth inning for the White Sox and 6-3 loss in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field helped the Cardinals complete a sweep in their first contests since July 29. The pair of setbacks, including a 5-1 loss in Game 1, dropped the White Sox to 10-11 overall and 2-8 at home in a forgettable overall afternoon for the South Siders.

“Not a good day today,” manager Rick Renteria said. “Two losses in one day is not good.”

• Box score

“It's a little bit frustrating to come today and have this day,” said left fielder Eloy Jiménez, who had two hits in the second game. “But bad days [happen] for good teams. Tomorrow is another day, and we're going to take care of business and we're going to play hard, like always, and try to go out and win the game."

Jiménez gave the White Sox a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run homer to right, giving him three homers and seven RBIs over his last four games. But that lead disappeared when the Cardinals scored four in that fifth off relievers Jimmy Cordero and Evan Marshall.

The fateful fifth began with Max Schrock’s bloop single to right-center that fell between center fielder Luis Robert, right fielder Nomar Mazara and second baseman Danny Mendick. The ball had an expected batting average of .330, per Statcast.

Cordero hit Tommy Edman with a pitch, and a wild pitch moved the runners up a base before a run scored on Matt Carpenter’s one-out grounder. Marshall came in to face Paul Goldschmidt with two outs and a runner on third, and Goldschmidt hit a 92.7 mph four-seamer up the middle for a game-tying infield hit. Mendick got his glove on the ball but couldn’t corral it.

Tyler O’Neill followed with a two-run blast to left, lifting the Cardinals back ahead.

“Those are close plays that probably didn’t go our way,” said Renteria of the fifth. “The flare into center field, I don’t think anybody could have got to that. The ball that Mendy was trying to get to, it kicked up a little bit.”

Robert’s home run in the third put the White Sox in front, but Goldschmidt evened it up with a home run off Zack Burdi in the fourth.

In a bullpen day for both teams, Matt Foster started for the White Sox and threw two perfect innings. He has 9 2/3 scoreless innings to start his career and has fanned 15 of 32 batters faced this season, but it wasn’t nearly enough to offset an offense that produced three hits in each loss, with nobody but Mendick, Robert and Jiménez finishing with a hit.

Renteria tipped his cap to St. Louis Game 1 starter Adam Wainwright. But against the Cardinals' bullpen effort in the followup, Jiménez felt his team was trying to do too much.

“Everybody tried to be a hero, and when we are like that, we don't have good days,” Jiménez said. “We try to do our best every single day. I know the last couple games, we've had our ups and downs. But we still have a really good lineup, and we're going to keep fighting and winning games."

When asked if the White Sox are a good team, even at 10-11, both Jiménez and Renteria agreed the potential is there. The results, though, have to consistently start matching that talent.

“Yeah, there's no doubt about it. We still have the mind that we're a really good team, we have a really good lineup,” Jiménez said. “And we're going to fight. This is no end yet. We have more games to come, and we just need to go out and play hard."

“We still have yet to have a nice winning streak,” Renteria said. “For me a nice winning streak isn’t four or five. A nice winning streak is 10, 11 or 12. A lot of things have to come together for that to happen. But that’s a nice winning streak.”