Runs, defense and pitching are all missing in the latest White Sox loss

PHILADELPHIA – Pedro Grifol offered the White Sox a stand before their 8-2 loss to the Phillies on Sunday.

“We’re 20 games in and our record sucks,” Grifol said.

Success!

“It is what it is, but you can’t look back,” Grifol said.

But you can look ahead, and hours later, the Sox’ ninth loss in 10 games dropped the poor record to 3-18 — the worst start in franchise history — and presented a .143 winning percentage reminiscent of the expansion 1962 Mets. They finished 40-120 (.250), baseball’s worst record ever.

That’s not what Grifol is thinking about. In fact, he wouldn’t rule out a big winning streak, as difficult as that is to watch a team fail to score, pitch inconsistently and simply play bad baseball on days like Sunday.

“I’ve been in this game for a long time and I’ve been part of streaks like this,” the second-year manager said. “But I’ve also been part of the other side, the 17-3s and 20-5s, and they’re a lot of fun. Why can’t we have one?”

They can’t do that if they average two runs per game and miss cutoff men and blow rundown plays like they did on Sunday.

“We didn’t act defensively,” Grifol said after the match. “It just magnifies it a little bit more. We have to play perfect baseball, we have to win with pitching and defense until the hitting gets going. And if we don’t do that, we’re going to have a hard time.”

After going no-hit in the seventh and eighth innings in the first two losses of the series, the Majors’ lowest-scoring team grabbed its first lead on Eloy Jimenez’s first homer, giving right-hander Nick Nastrini a cushion in his second career start. .

“I feel better at the plate. My confidence is coming back,” said Jimenez, who went 4-for-26 with no extra base hits.

But Nastrini walked Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner to start the first and gave up three runs in the inning, pockmarked by second baseman Lenyn Sosa’s ill-timed rundown, which chased Bryce Harper back to first. Sosa threw across his body, high and wide at the plate, allowing Trea Turner to score from third.

“We had that double steal, the botched rundown, that wasn’t executed properly,” Grifol said. “You’ve got to run that guy back to the bag and get the whole thing out. When you give up running, you give up running. But you have to minimize the damage here in this stadium with these guys. I missed a few cut-off guys and gave up 30 yards.

Left fielder Andrew Benintendi’s throw home over cutoff man Braden Shewmake after an RBI single by Turner allowed two runners to get into scoring position. Alec Bohm’s double drop just yards from veteran outfielders Kevin Pillar and Robbie Grossman had a tricky finish when Grossman lost his balance and fell to the grass.

Nastrini, who had allowed two runs in five innings against the Royals, gave up six runs (five earned), six hits and five walks.

“I just wasn’t good,” he said. “I fell behind a group and didn’t execute my fastball when I wanted to. Change was kind of a non-factor. I beat myself there.

“Any time the guys score two runs in the first inning, and you walk the first two guys, that’s not a good start – never a good one. Giving up three in the first kills the momentum. I didn’t do much today to help the team win.”

The Sox keep saying they’ll work hard, and they probably will.

“I know things aren’t going the way we expected,” Jimenez said. “But we have to keep fighting. I know it won’t stay like this forever.”

Fed up fans need to be made to believe otherwise.

“It’s going to change,” Grifol said. “But I’m not going to sit here and feel sorry for ourselves or myself.

“All I can do is learn from what happened, teach, and create an environment here where guys can perform and feel free to perform, instead of creating an environment of pressure.”