KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This is the fight to avoid the distinction of who might be the worst team in the American League Central.
For the White Sox, it has become a brutal fight to stay healthy, one week into the season.
On the same day Eloy Jimenez landed on the injured list with an adductor strain, All-Star center fielder Luis Robert Jr. injured his right hip flexor running out a double in the ninth inning of a 2-1 loss to the Royals that dropped the Sox to 1-6.
Adding to the pile of injury grief Friday, right-hander John Brebbia exited with a recurrence of the right calf injury that sidelined him during spring training.
Robert suffered the injury pulling up after rounding first base. In 2021, he suffered a Grade 3 strain (complete tear) of the same hip flexor. Robert walked off slowly under his own power.
Manager Pedro Grifol said Robert would be reevaluated Saturday.
“He’s hard to replace,” Grifol said. “You don’t replace a guy like him, but at the same time, next man up. We have to go out and continue to fight and do the things we need to do.”
With Robert likely headed to the IL, infielder Lenyn Sosa was headed from Triple-A Charlotte to Kansas City.
Robert’s injury was another cruel blow to a team that has lost six of its first seven games for the fourth time in franchise history and for the first time since 1995. In the most winnable division in baseball, the Sox are 0-5.
“It’s obviously devastating,” second baseman Nicky Lopez said of Robert’s injury. “You don’t want to see injuries. And for one of the best players in baseball, you see that, it gets you down. That guy is so exciting to watch. We’ll pray for the best. And we’ll keep moving forward.”
As bad as the Sox were last season, 61-101 for their worst record since 1970, the Royals were even worse with 106 losses. But as the Royals were seen during the offseason as the most improved team in the AL, the Sox trimmed payroll to $132 million (18th in the majors, according to Spotrac, still higher than the Royals at $116 million), completely overhauled their rotation and did little in the offseason to upgrade their roster.
And now a team that has scored 13 runs, their fewest in their first seven games since a 68-94 team in 1969, is without Robert and Jimenez, their 3-4 batters in the lineup. Jimenez played in only three games.
Defense, improved “baseball IQ” and clubhouse culture were said to be spruced up, but nothing was done to bolster an offense that ranked last in the majors in runs last season, and it’s showing.
The Sox had four hits, including Gavin Sheets’ first homer, extending his on-base streak to eight. MJ Melendez’s RBI single in the eighth against Michael Kopech broke a 1-1 tie. Robert’s double went for naught as Andrew Vaughn rapped into a game-ending double play against James McArthur.
The Sox were 7-21 in Grifol’s first 28 games as a manager last season, and it will take a 7-14 stretch, probably without Robert, against the Royals, Guardians, Reds and Phillies to avoid that.
It hasn’t been all doom and gloom. It’s only two starts, but Garrett Crochet (1.38 ERA) has pitched like a star, Michael Soroka (4.91) looked more capable of recapturing glimpses of his All-Star ability in his second start Thursday and Erick Fedde has a 2.79 ERA after pitching five-plus innings of one-run ball in his second start Friday.
But still.
“The worst thing we can do, and this is not going to happen, is feel sorry for ourselves,” Grifol said. “We are not going to do that. I’m proud of our guys, man. There’s a lot of energy. These guys want to win every single day. They play to win. They care. They care for each other.”
It will take more than that to win games, however.
One hundred fifty-five to go.
