White Sox lose 11th straight as frustrations and injuries mount

MILWAUKEE – There is going to be palpable frustration in the locker room of a team that’s 15-45. A team that has lost 11 in a row and has key players taking turns on the injured list. The White Sox showed both of those things in Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Brewers. 

Before the game, Andrew Benintendi joined the ranks of injured players with left Achilles tendinitis. Of the nine batters in Pedro Grifol’s opening day lineup, the first four (Benintendi, Luis Robert, Jr. Yoan Moncada, and Eloy Jimenez) are now on the injured list. 

Benintendi said he had been in some pain for several weeks and attempting to play through it, but on Saturday the discomfort was too much. Benintendi left Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Brewers after the third inning. He was placed on the 10-day injured list on Sunday, and Oscar Colás was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte.

“The game two days ago, it was hurting pretty bad where just walking out to left and jogging was painful,” Benintendi said. “Then yesterday, before the game even started I thought about telling Pedro. But I like to play through things. It’s unfortunate. I hit a homer of course and get taken out so it’s obviously not a great look. But it’s probably the right move before it gets too serious.”

Benintendi hit a home run – his fourth of the season – just before exiting Saturday’s game, but that kind of offensive production had been scarce from him. Benintendi is in the midst of his worst career season; he has a .514 OPS at the plate and his -11 defensive runs saved is by far the worst mark of his career.

Those struggles are not a product of the injury, according to Benitendi. Or, at least, he won’t use it as an excuse.

“This had no effect on my hitting or anything like that. Just not swinging the bat well,” he said before joking that he was “hot in June” in reference to Saturday’s homer, his first since April 30.

Benintendi’s injury means another chance at the majors for Colás, who batted .216 with five home runs in 263 plate appearances last season. He had been hitting .244 with five homers for Charlotte this year. 

How long Colás is with the big league club might come down to how soon Luis Robert, Jr. returns from the right hip flexor strain that sidelined him in early April. He’s been on a rehab assignment in Charlotte since May 28, where reports are that Robert, Jr. is doing well and should return to the team soon. 

“He looks ready. I had the chance to play with him with Charlotte, and physically he looks good, and from the injury, he looks good too,” Colás said.

Getting Robert, Jr. back should help an offense that ranks last in the league in runs scored, but the White Sox need more than the boost he will provide. A .250 winning percentage means a lot more is wrong than just missing your center fielder.

Pedro Grifol’s motto for the team this year is “Play Fast,” and the aggressive philosophy behind it was on display on Sunday, just not in the way he wants. 

Trailing by one run in the eighth inning, pinch runner Zach Remillard got caught flat footed trying to advance to third on a passed ball and got thrown out. He would have been the game-tying run on the Nicky Lopez double that followed, but the Sox still had a chance with Lopez and Tommy Pham in scoring position and one out. Instead, Pham was easily thrown out at home on a Corey Julks fly ball to left field, attempting to score the game-tying run on a sacrifice. 

The aggressiveness of the send could be debated; the ball was hit to shallow left and Christian Yelich made a perfect throw, but the story of the play is what followed after. Brewers catcher William Contreras celebrated what turned out to be a double play, pounding his chest and shouting, and Pham turned back to challenge him, taking umbrage with what he called “hoo-rah shit.” Both dugouts partially emptied, but the situation was diffused somewhat quickly.

“One run ballgame. Close play at the plate,” Pham said. “Actually, it wasn’t even fucking close. It was a shallow fly ball to left field. You would expect the left fielder to throw the baserunner out on that play.”

“The situation of the game, you know, third base coach sends you, you gotta go. I’m nailed out at home by a mile.”

Pham’s frustration could be a microcosm of the whole group, and perhaps he’s just more open about it. Grifol said he didn’t mind the call to try and score Pham from third.

“Just be aggressive man,” he said. “It has to be a perfect throw. Very few outs at home plate are made like that. If you put it all together over the course of a season, it’s got to be a really good throw and it was. It was right on line. I don’t have a problem with that at all. Tommy can run. He’s a good baserunner. It just happened that it was a good throw and he got thrown out by quite a bit. 

“Throw’s offline a little bit and we’re having a different conversation. We’re kicking ourselves in the ass for not going, right?”

In theory, there’s nowhere for the Sox to go but up. They have spent the first third of this season setting new franchise records in futility. Their current losing streak, at eleven games, is the longest in White Sox history since 1956. They’ve lost 19 times after leading this season. Things like that can lead to frustration which can lead to overly-aggressive decisions, like sending a runner from third on a shallow fly ball to left.