Runs, defense, pitching all lacking in latest White Sox loss

PHILADELPHIA — Pedro Grifol offered a state of the White Sox before their 8-2 loss to the Phillies on Sunday.

“We’re 20 games in, our record sucks,” Grifol said.

Nailed it!

“It is what it is, but you can’t look back,” Grifol said.

But you can look ahead, and hours later, the Sox’ ninth loss in 10 games dropped said sucky record to 3-18 — the worst start in franchise history — and presented a winning percentage of .143 that brings to mind the 1962 expansion Mets. They finished 40-120 (.250), baseball’s worst record ever.

That’s not on Grifol’s mind. In fact, he’s not ruling out a big winning streak, as hard as that is to fathom watching a team that can’t score, gets inconsistent pitching and on days such as Sunday simply plays bad baseball.

“I’ve been in this game a long time, and I’ve been part of streaks like this,” the second-year manager said. “But I’ve been a part of the other side, as well, the 17-3s and 20-5s, and those are really fun. Why can’t we have one of those?”

They can’t if they average two runs a game and miss cutoff men and botch rundown plays as they did Sunday.

“We didn’t execute defensively,” Grifol said after the game. “It just magnifies it a little bit more. We’ve got to play perfect baseball, we’ve got to win with pitching and defense until the hitting gets going. And if we’re not doing that, we’re going to struggle.”

After getting no-hit into the seventh and eighth innings in the first two losses of the series, the majors’ lowest-scoring team grabbed its first lead on Eloy Jimenez’s first homer, giving right-hander Nick Nastrini a cushion in his second career start.

“I feel better at the plate. My confidence is coming back,” said Jimenez, who was 4-for-26 with no extra-base hits going in.

But Nastrini walked Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner to start the first and allowed three runs in the inning, pockmarked by second baseman Lenyn Sosa’s poorly timed rundown chasing Bryce Harper back to first. Sosa threw across his body, high and wide to the plate, allowing Trea Turner to score from third.

“We had that double steal, the botched rundown, it wasn’t executed correctly,” Grifol said. “You’ve got to run that guy hard back to the bag and get the out there. If you give up the run, you give up the run. But you’ve got to minimize damage here in this ballpark with these guys. Missed a couple of cutoff guys, gave up 90 feet.”

Left fielder Andrew Benintendi’s throw home over cutoff man Braden Shewmake on an RBI single by Turner allowed two runners to advance into scoring position. Alec Bohm’s double dropping within feet of veteran outfielders Kevin Pillar and Robbie Grossman had an awkward finish when Grossman lost his footing and fell to the grass.

Nastrini, who had allowed two runs in five innings against the Royals, gave up six runs (five earned), six hits and five walks.

“I just wasn’t good,” he said. “I fell behind a bunch, wasn’t executing my fastball when I wanted to. Changeup was kind of a non-factor. I beat myself up there.

“Whenever the boys put up two runs in the first, and you walk the first two guys, that’s not a hot start — never good. Giving up three in the first kills the momentum. I didn’t do a whole lot to help the team win today.”

The Sox keep saying they’ll work hard, and they probably will.

“I know things aren’t going like we expected,” Jimenez said. “But we need to keep fighting. I know it’s not going to be like this forever.”

Fed-up fans need to be shown otherwise to believe it.

“It’s going to [turn],” Grifol said. “But I’m not going to sit here and feel sorry for ourselves or myself.

“All I can do is learn from what’s happened, teach, continue to have an environment in here where guys can perform and feel free to perform as opposed to creating an environment of pressure.”