White Sox pitcher Michael Soroka struggled with his fastball command in Sunday’s 11-4 loss to the Reds. | AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
Nam Y. Huh/AP Photos
Fans booed after center fielder Dominic Fletcher’s bad defensive play led to a run scoring. The game was already in the Reds’ favor, but it’s understandable for fans to be frustrated at the defensive miscues after the organization talked in the offseason about upgrading that side of the ball.
Poor hitting is one thing, but the defense and stolen bases allowed — the Reds’ six stolen bases are the most the Sox have allowed since 2017 — are inexcusable. The White Sox’ season continued with an 11-4 loss against the Reds. The Sox’ 2-13 start is the worst in franchise history.
“Walks killed us, [being] behind in the count also killed us,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “That happened yesterday as well. In total, we had eight walks. It’s hard to win baseball games like that. On the defensive side, we made a couple of miscues that are really unacceptable.”
Outfielder Robbie Grossman dropped a ball in right field, putting runners on second and third in the seventh inning. The Reds — one of the best teams in the majors at scoring runs with runners in scoring position — took advantage with a four-run seventh inning.
The margins are thin for a Sox team battling injuries to key guys.
“There’s a lot of talent on this team,” pitcher Michael Soroka said. “There’s a lot of guys who know how to play this game hard. Most of us in a rut are trying too hard to get to the other side of it. It’s a tough game that way. It’s not a game that you can outhustle someone in the game, on the mound, or in the box. You kind of have to find that happy zone of being relaxed and letting your stuff play.”
Soroka pitched 4 ⅔ innings with six walks, five runs allowed and four strikeouts. He said he needs to trust his stuff more and let it play. He said he tried to be ‘perfect’ with his fastball early, which came back to hurt him.
Despite the struggles for himself and the team, Soroka said the team needs to trust that they can turn things around.
“When you make too much of an emphasis on outworking and fighting everybody on the baseball field, everybody feels like they need to be the guy to step up,” Soroka said. “It just comes down to wanting it but not trying too hard.”
Second baseman Nicky Lopez played for the 104-win Atlanta Braves last season. He saw how a championship-level organization operates and how it remains level-headed.
However, losses are magnified early, particularly for a team that is coming off a season tying for the third-most losses in franchise history (61-101).
“It sucks,” Lopez said of the team’s poor start. “No one wants to struggle. You can use the term “It’s early”; but it’s our livelihoods, our careers and no one likes to struggle.”
The Sox’ poor stretch is weighing on the team, but they have to not worry about that. The team is talking about how to fix things. They had a 10:15 a.m. batting practice, which normally doesn’t happen for a 1:10 p.m. game, to change things up.
“What’s going on here is we need to relax, play baseball and enjoy this game, as opposed to putting everything on our shoulders as individuals and think that we’re the ones that are going to fix this,” Grifol said. “We fix this as a team.”
Grifol said the team is doing the right things, but until the execution matches the talk, the losses will likely continue to mount.