CHICAGO -- The White Sox were punched in the mouth.
Erick Fedde didn’t shy away from it. Neither did Andrew Benintendi. After a three-game sweep at the hands of the Pirates, one that ended with two hits and no runs Thursday night, the message inside Chicago’s clubhouse was clear.
The punch landed. Now comes the response.
“Sometimes, a punch in the face is needed to get going,” Fedde said after the White Sox 2-0 loss at Rate Field. “We’re still in a good spot in the division. Obviously, [we’re] making it a little harder on ourselves, but it’s a good wake-up call. Teams aren’t going to roll over for us. It’s time to dig our cleats in and get the job done.”
The White Sox remain in first place in the American League Central. But after dropping four of their last five and eight of their last 11, the cushion is thinning. With Cleveland idle Thursday, Chicago’s division lead shrank to 1 1/2 games ahead of a three-game weekend series in St. Louis.
The urgency is real. So, too, is the belief that this three-day stretch was an aberration rather than the beginning of something larger.
“We all understand the situation,” manager Will Venable said. “You never want to get swept, and certainly not here down the stretch. At the same time, I think our clubhouse and our vibe inside there is in a really good spot.”
Chicago’s pitching offered every opportunity for a different outcome Thursday. Hagen Smith delivered two scoreless innings in his first Major League start, and Fedde followed with 5 1/3 strong innings as the planned bulk reliever. The two runs charged to Fedde were enough to decide the game because the offense never found an answer.
The White Sox scored five runs across the three-game series. On Thursday, they did not record a hit against Jared Jones until Colson Montgomery lined a two-out double off the top of the right-field wall in the seventh inning. Randal Grichuk added a pinch-hit single in the ninth, briefly bringing the tying run to the plate, but it amounted to nothing.
Jones attacked with a fastball that nearly touched triple digits and paired it with a hard slider. It was a similar formula to what Chicago saw throughout the series from a Pirates staff filled with power arms.
“We saw some really good fastballs this series,” Venable said. “Today was the same thing with Jones, where he was really aggressive with the fastball, saw a lot of swings and misses, foul balls, and then had a really good slider, too. We just weren’t able to make the adjustments and move the ball forward.”
The White Sox believed they had prepared for exactly what Pittsburgh threw at them. Their pregame work centered on handling premium velocity and making the necessary adjustments against the fastball. The preparation simply did not translate once they stepped into the box.
“It just didn’t happen on the field,” Venable said. “These guys are dynamic arms that are really hard to solve for, and sometimes, you get beat.”
Benintendi felt the White Sox occasionally helped Jones, particularly by chasing sliders below the strike zone. But after three frustrating nights, he saw little benefit in carrying the series with them to St. Louis.
“Move on,” Benintendi said. “Their whole staff seems like they all throw 100. … It will be good to put them in our rearview.”
There were positives buried beneath the offensive frustration. Smith looked comfortable in a role the White Sox had not previously asked him to fill in the Majors. He attacked the strike zone, generated swings and misses and handled the unfamiliar assignment by treating his pregame routine like he would before a bullpen appearance.
Fedde then kept the game within reach, relying on a sweeper that has helped fuel his recent success. But each time he escaped trouble, he returned to a dugout still waiting for the offense to break through.
It never did.
The White Sox are not pretending the sweep was harmless. But they also are not allowing three losses to erase the position they earned over the season’s first five-plus months.
“If you would’ve asked us before the season to be in this position, we would’ve taken it,” Benintendi said. “It stinks, obviously, getting swept at home. But who knows? Maybe we go on the road and hit first and punch some other people in the mouth.”
That is the opportunity now. The White Sox absorbed the punch. Their season might be defined by what they do next.