One minute Lance Lynn was throwing a no-hitter within the seventh inning in opposition to the perfect crew in baseball, attempting to finish a nine-game Chicago White Sox shedding streak.
But the Sox went from no-no to “Oh, no” within the blink of an eye fixed, imploding in a shocking 12-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays earlier than 28,462 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Lynn and relievers Aaron Bummer and Jimmy Lambert mixed to surrender 10 runs on 9 hits within the wild seventh, extending the shedding streak to 10 video games, the Sox’s longest since 2013.
The Sox fell to 7-21, their worst begin to a season since 1948, and are tied with the Kansas City Royals on the backside of the American League Central. They’re 0-6 in opposition to the Rays, who hit 5 dwelling runs within the last three innings and improved to a major-league-best 23-5.
“I don’t go back and look at history and look at what other teams have done,” supervisor Pedro Grifol mentioned. “I’m sure it’s been done before. Teams feel like the sky is falling on top of them, and all of a sudden they catch a break here and there and they’re off and running. I don’t feel this is over by any means.”
As the pounding continued, chants of “Sell the team” echoed all through the ballpark.
Making the day a whole catastrophe, Luis Robert was pulled within the second inning for not operating laborious on a grounder to the pitcher within the first. Grifol referred to as it a “mental lapse” that wanted to be addressed.
Robert mentioned he “played conservative” with a sore left hamstring, and his mistake was not telling Grifol about it beforehand. He mentioned he instructed Eloy Jiménez and Elvis Andrus, and considered one of them instructed Grifol after the primary.
“I knew if I said something to him, he probably wouldn’t let me play,” Robert mentioned.
Robert didn’t appear to grasp the gravity of his benching, smiling as he answered questions on Grifol’s determination.
“Yes, I understand the decision he made because he didn’t know,” Robert mentioned. “People that didn’t know what was going on, you could think it was a lack of effort on my part. People that know me, they know I’m always doing my best and running hard down the line.”
The Sox season, already on the brink, may very well be all however over by the top of the present homestand in the event that they don’t flip issues round rapidly.
At least Lynn got here out of hibernation earlier than Wander Franco’s leadoff dwelling run within the seventh started the 10-run outburst. Grifol referred to as Lynn “phenomenal.”
“I’m back to being me,” Lynn mentioned. “I need to build off tonight.”
But then all of it fell aside because the Rays wound up sending 14 batters to the plate within the seventh.
Lynn mentioned he wasn’t fascinated about a no-hitter within the seventh.
“I had a no-hitter?” he mentioned.
Really? You didn’t know?
“I know I had a loss, so that doesn’t (bleeping) matter,” mentioned Lynn, who dropped to 0-4 with a 7.16 ERA in seven begins.
Sox pitchers posted a 6.01 ERA over the primary 9 video games of the shedding streak, and the workers’s 5.65 ERA in April was on an early tempo to surpass the franchise-worst mark of 5.41 in 1934.
It has been so comical of late that Sox radio analyst Darrin Jackson referred to a play Friday as “definitely Little League” throughout the WMVP-AM 1000 broadcast. The Rays scored on a pop-up when a runner on first tagged up after seeing nobody masking second. The Sox then ignored the runner on third, who tagged up and got here dwelling. Even Little Leaguers may need been offended by the comparability.
Grifol was visibly aggravated by the psychological mistake after Friday’s recreation, most of which he watched from his workplace after being thrown out of his second straight recreation by the identical umpire, Marvin Hudson.
So what can Grifol do?
Before Saturday’s recreation I requested if he believed in having crew conferences this early within the season.
“Do you know if we have had some or not?” he replied.
Um, no.
“I believe in anything that helps us get back to where we need to get back to,” he continued. “Those are things I’ll just keep in house. Things that we do in there, we just keep in there.”
Sounds like a “yes.” Or perhaps a “Stay out of Sox business”?
At least the Sox couldn’t be accused of quitting below Grifol — that’s earlier than Robert stopped operating Saturday.
Grifol mentioned it was not a “common occurrence” and that Robert is a “hard worker.”
“I just spoke to him and told him we have to run hard down the line, that’s it,” Grifol mentioned.
But the collapse, the shedding streak and Robert’s lack of hustle can’t be ignored by Sox followers who’ve thrown their arms within the air and given up on the season.
When a crew that supposedly has as a lot expertise because the Sox begins out this poorly, it doesn’t replicate nicely on the supervisor. Fortunately for Grifol, basic supervisor Rick Hahn absolved him and his teaching workers of any blame Thursday throughout his “Put it on me” pronouncement.
Sox followers are greater than prepared to place it on Hahn — and govt vice chairman Ken Williams. Still, it’s Grifol’s job to get the present roster out of the skid, and he repeated Saturday that accidents are not any excuse.
If they don’t get well, it will likely be Hahn’s job to start out the fireplace sale. With the division-leading Minnesota Twins 9 video games forward of the Sox and coming to city Tuesday, it may very well be a do-or-die week.
“Everyone’s trying, but trying doesn’t get the job done,” starter Lucas Giolito mentioned after Friday’s loss. “We’ve acquired to do it. We’re not, so it’s irritating. The different factor I don’t need is guys to get so annoyed that we’re going into at-bats tight or we’re enjoying protection tight or we’re pitching tight.
“When we’re going good, we’re relaxed, we’re having fun. It’s hard to do that when you’re losing.”
This week the Sox ended a 25-inning scoreless streak. The worst Sox crew within the final 70 years may need been the 1948 version that began 7-24 to fall 15½ video games out of first by May 29. They beat Hall of Fame-bound Cleveland ace Bob Feller on May 30 within the first recreation of a doubleheader, ending a 28-inning scoreless streak.
That’s White Sox symmetry in a nutshell.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com