KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was a good time for Garrett Crochet to call it a day after five innings.
It was a good time for the emerging ace of the White Sox’ staff to vent.
“We need to turn the corner soon,” Crochet said. “Everybody has some evaluating to do, myself included.”
The White Sox (1-8) are not hitting, and they didn’t play a clean game Sunday in their 5-3 loss to the Royals.
“If everybody kind of pulls together and can look introspectively, we’ll be able to get out of this,” Crochet said. “But we need to turn it on soon.”
Crochet, who didn’t allow a hit in his first four innings, gave up a two-run homer in the fifth and was pulled after the inning with 77 pitches logged. His workload will be monitored as he starts for the first time in his professional career, and with a 3-2 lead and his heaviest-workload inning just completed, manager Pedro Grifol went to his bullpen.
“He went six innings the first time out, seven innings the second time out and I wasn’t going to push him past 77 pitches today; I just wasn’t going to do it,” Grifol said.
The Sox have lost at least eight of their first nine games for the second time in franchise history; they started 0-10 in 1968.
Crochet, who has been outstanding with a 2.00 ERA, 21 strikeouts and only one walk, didn’t have his best fastball command and was unhappy about not delivering a shutdown inning after the Sox, desperately needing a victory, scored two in the fifth to take a 3-0 lead.
“Guys are starting to realize we are not playing good enough ball, and I think that guys are starting to get [ticked],” Crochet said.
That can be a good thing, he said.
“Getting [ticked off] shows passion, and this is a game you have to play with passion,’’ Crochet said. ‘‘It’s a long season, so you have to have fun with your teammates. You have to play the game hard. Getting [ticked] is normally the turning point for me as a pitcher. . . . I think it can be useful for us [as a team].”
Jimenez, Brebbia updates
Eloy Jimenez did some running and said he felt good as he works his way back from an adductor strain. He could return Friday, when the Sox open a homestand against the Reds.
“We’ll see; it’s day-to-day,” Grifol said. “Day-to-day means we have to wait until after a day is over, he has to get a night’s rest and then he’s got to come in and see how he feels.
‘‘If he continues to improve, then it should be sometime in the next week. If not, we’ll readjust.”
John Brebbia had a recurrence of his right calf strain suffered during spring training and could go on the injured list.
Eclipse!
The Sox are guests of the Guardians on Monday for their home opener, for which the starting time was changed weeks ago to 4:10 p.m. to work around the full solar eclipse. Cleveland falls in the eclipse’s path for totality.
Because of the sun’s location and the structure of Progressive Field, it won’t be visible inside much of the ballpark, so fans will be allowed to exit and re-enter.
The Sox are taking batting practice early before the field is off-limits for a two-hour period around the eclipse.
