Just when going gets tough, it gets even tougher for White Sox, who lose to Royals and fall to 1-8

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Getting the White Sox out of their hitting funk, and out of it soon, seems necessary to avoid a losing season of epic proportions.

Through nine games, as it was again in the 5-3 loss to the Royals that dropped them to a horrendous 1-8 start, the Sox’ starting pitching has been good enough to put up a fighting chance. The bullpen is another matter.

But there have been four quality starts, tied for second in the American League, and five good starts in the last five days. Garrett Crochet allowed two runs in five innings Sunday.

But 16 runs isn’t cutting it, and manager Pedro Grifol is dealing with a short deck while Eloy Jimenez (adductor strain) and Luis Robert Jr. (Grade 2 right hip flexor strain) heal up on the injured list.

The team’s expectation, a source said, is that Robert will be out six to eight weeks. If Jimenez returns next weekend, and that’s still to be determined, the best-case scenario is a 10-game absence.

“Those are blows,” Grifol said.

But Grifol insists what’s left to fill his lineup card is enough.

“These guys have a track record,” Grifol said. “We want to be better; we should be better; we’re not. We gotta improve and get to where we know we can get to and produce runs. We’re in the cages, we’re working, talking, preparing — you name it. And we’re [nine] games into it. We have to find a way and find it quick and settle in to who we are.”

With little margin for error, the Sox were thought to be a better defensive team, and they have been, but not Sunday.

Grifol said if the hitting were happening in August, the reaction would be “everybody goes through it. We’re just going through it now in April.”

“It has been difficult, but we can’t put our heads down,” said Yoan Moncada, who owns a respectable hitting line of .273/.368/.424 after getting a single and double while looking for his first home run. “We have to keep our head up and try to battle and do whatever we can to make this team get going.”

Grifol switched the lineup, moving Robbie Grossman, a disciplined career .346 on-base-percentage guy, to the leadoff spot and switching Andrew Benintendi to fifth, alluding to Benintendi’s .368/.473/.461 hitting line in high-leverage situations last year and his ability to drive in runs.

But the Sox were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and are 5-for-48 this season.

Oof.

Grossman went 0-for-5 but will be the leadoff man for a while, Grifol suggested. In Benintendi’s first at-bat, after Andrew Vaughn took strike three with Moncada on third and Gavin Sheets on second against Royals righty Alec Marsh, he struck out. Benintendi did finish 2-for-4 with a walk, RBI and run scored.

“These guys have been around for a little bit,” Grifol said. “They know how to hit. Benintendi [.139] is a hitter, man. Vaughn [.194] is a hitter; he has hit. [Moncada] has done his thing. We lost Eloy; we lost Robert. [But] these guys, they’ve hit. Just not right now.’’

Crochet was perfect through three innings and led 3-0 but allowed a two-run homer to Hunter Renfroe in the fifth inning. MJ Melendez hit a two-run homer against Deivi Garcia in the seventh inning, and errors by center fielder Dominic Fletcher and reliever Dominic Leone led to a three-run seventh for the Royals, who completed a four-game sweep and dropped the Sox to 0-7 in the AL Central.

“We had a lot of opportunities to score, tack on runs,” Grifol said. “And we didn’t capitalize with the big hit. We made a few mistakes later on. We made one on the bases and one obviously defensively that cost us. That was a game that got away from us. We should’ve brought that game home.’’