OAKLAND -- Following the A’s deflating three-game sweep in Toronto over the weekend, manager Bob Melvin remained steadfast that a turnaround of a sinking season would materialize over the next few weeks.

The start of that bounceback will have to wait another day.

A return to the Coliseum on Tuesday did not do much in the way of helping the A’s break out of their recent skid. They fell to the White Sox, 6-3, in the opener of a three-game series, marking Oakland’s fourth consecutive loss.

Unable to gain ground in the standings on a night that also saw the Mariners and Red Sox lose, Tuesday’s defeat kept the A’s 3 1/2 games back of the second American League Wild Card spot.

"We’re on the outside looking in," said A’s first baseman Matt Olson, who drove in the A’s first run on a sacrifice fly in the first. "We know what we can do. We know we have the talent in here. We truly believe we’re a team that should be in the playoffs and make a long run."

Held to one run over five innings against White Sox rookie starter Jimmy Lambert, it wasn’t until the A’s were down 6-1 that the offense briefly came to life. Starling Marte’s booming single to center in the eighth off Craig Kimbrel cut the deficit to three runs. But in the ninth, the A’s were finished off by a familiar face in former closer Liam Hendriks, who closed them out with a quick 1-2-3 ninth.

"We've got to pick it up from the last four games," Olson said. "If we don’t, we’re not going to like the results. From here on out, we've just got to play better if we want to win the World Series. It’s that simple."

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The theme was all too familiar to defeats over the past few weeks for the A’s, who have now dropped 16 of their last 23 games. A short outing by James Kaprielian was followed by the struggling A’s bullpen’s inability to hold Chicago’s offense down.

Coinciding with that rough stretch of 23 games has been a string of early exits by A’s starters. In 15 of the A’s last 23 games, their starting pitcher has gone five innings or fewer before getting pulled.

On Tuesday, Kaprielian was done in by a White Sox offense that made him work hard early. Though he was able to pitch around heavy traffic as he allowed five hits and two walks while also hitting two batters, Kaprielian limited the damage at just one run through four innings. But at 92 pitches by the end of those four frames, Melvin decided the large workload was enough for the rookie right-hander.

Turning to an A’s relief corps that entered with seven blown saves and a 6.92 ERA over its last 14 games, the game quickly got out of hand upon Kaprielian’s departure. Left-hander A.J. Puk took over a tie game in the fifth and recorded only two outs, allowing three runs. Then, a two-run single off Jake Diekman in the eighth all but put the game out of reach at 6-1.

"Inefficient," Kaprielian said of his outing. "Those guys did a good job of grinding me and putting together long at-bats. I just didn’t get it done. It’s unfortunate."

After an impressive first 12 starts in which he ranked among the game’s best rookies with a 2.65 ERA, Kaprielian has hit a snag over the last month or so. He’s now posted a 6.15 ERA over his last seven starts. The more frustrating stat for Kaprielian is that he’s only gone past the fifth inning in two of those seven starts.

"I really wanted to go deep in this game today and give those guys in the bullpen a day off," Kaprielian said. "Do what I can to be a turning point for us, because that’s what we need right now."

With 24 games left in the regular season, the A’s need to find that turning point fast. Where can that flip of the switch come from?

"It can be one pitching performance or one swing of the bat. A walk-off win. It can be anything,” Olson said. "That’s the beauty of baseball. There’s many different ways to build momentum. We've got to learn from this rough patch here, flush it and get back to what we do."