Yankees batter Despaigne, halt White Sox’ momentum

Depending on how you look at things, the White Sox might have missed an opportunity.

Competitive into June for the first time since the beginning of their rebuild, the Sox played in front of a sellout crowd for the second consecutive day Sunday. They had a chance to take a series from the powerful Yankees and add to their growing buzz.

One bad inning doomed struggling right-hander Reynaldo Lopez on Saturday, and journeyman right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne was worse in a 10-3 loss Sunday. The Sox fell back to two games below .500 and perhaps lost some momentum entering their two-game series Tuesday and Wednesday at Wrigley Field.

But catcher James McCann was looking at the positives. The Sox won the first two games of the series and went 4-3 against the Yankees this season.

‘‘Yeah, that’s something we reminded each other about,’’ said McCann, who homered in the eighth. ‘‘We split this series and took the series from them at their place. So we took the season series from a team that is one of the best in baseball.

‘‘It’s not the way we wanted to finish today, but overall you have to be happy with taking a season series from a team like that.’’

Perhaps, but Sunday wasn’t one of the Sox’ better days. Third baseman Yoan Moncada, who had missed four consecutive games with a back problem, left before the fifth inning with tightness in his upper back. He winced during his two at-bats, and the Sox decided not to risk him further.

Before the game, manager Rick Renteria said Moncada had been working toward returning and told the Sox he felt ready. Now he’s day-to-day, though Renteria was confident Moncada would be ready for Tuesday.

‘‘Just watching the swing, watching the finish, which is what I was concerned with, getting through the ball,’’ Renteria said. ‘‘He’s ready to get through the ball; it’s just the finish. He’s feeling a little something there. You can’t replicate it in any drill work.’’

The Sox don’t want to replicate what Despaigne did against the Yankees. He allowed seven runs and nine hits in 4 ¹⁄₃ innings, raising his ERA to 8.71. The Yankees scored five runs in the third and two in the fifth, quieting the crowd of 37,277 and taking advantage of the Sox’ lack of rotation depth.

‘‘I was feeling good at the beginning of the game,’’ Despaigne said through a translator. ‘‘I was attacking the strike zone with my fastball. Everything was good. And then in the third inning, I started falling behind in the counts. I was trying to fight back, and I couldn’t.

‘‘That’s not a good thing when you fall behind in the count with those kinds of hitters because you’re going to pay for it. I paid for it.’’

Next up are the Cubs, who figure to be another measuring stick in a month filled with games against contending teams.

‘‘All clubs that are putting themselves in a place where they’re playing a high level of baseball, you use all of those clubs to see where you’re at,’’ Renteria said. ‘‘It’s important to do that. You give yourself an opportunity to gain perspective as to what it really takes to compete and to win and to win against well-balanced ballclubs.

‘‘They’re no different than some of the other clubs that have been winning over the last few years. We use it all the time, and our guys try to stay within themselves.’’