June 6th, 2024
Scott Merkin
@scottmerkinCHICAGO -- The White Sox made history of the wrong variety Wednesday night at Wrigley Field with a 7-6 loss to the Cubs.
When Mike Tauchman connected on a 1-0, 98.4 mph four-seam fastball from Michael Kopech leading off the ninth and deposited it into the left-center-field stands, Chicago (15-47) lost for the 13th straight time. That streak matches the longest single-season skid in franchise history, tying the 1924 White Sox who faltered from Aug. 9-26.
Kopech stood on the mound for a moment or two, almost in disbelief, but spoke of Chicago's run of futility after the Cubs (31-31) retained the Crosstown Cup with a two-game sweep.
“It sucks. There’s no easy way to put it,” Kopech said. “It’s a difficult game that we play. When you know that you have a lot of talent and have a lot of guys who care and want to win and you don’t see it panning out for you, everybody kind of feels for each other night in and night out.
“I don’t want to put anything on one portion of the game, because there’s a lot of things that could be cleaned up. Unfortunately it’s just the position we are in right now where it seems like things aren’t meant to go our way. We have to keep our head down and keep going with what we know how to do and prepare for tomorrow and try to win tomorrow.
“With that being said, 13 straight, it’s not fun. We all want to win,” Kopech said. “That’s why we play this game.”
Everything about Chicago's record is bad, from their 1-17 mark over the past 18 games to their 5-26 ledger on the road. But the White Sox have still been competitive in a number of games.
They had the lead in all three of this past weekend's losses at Milwaukee. They held a 5-0 lead over the Cubs on Tuesday and a 5-1 lead in Wednesday's finale, only to watch both advantages evaporate for a Major League-worst 22nd blown-lead loss.
To the White Sox credit, after giving up their edge in the seventh via a miserable three-run, one-hit frame for the Cubs, they quickly tied the game in the eighth on Paul DeJong’s leadoff home run. Once again, there was no ability to close the deal.
Each and every loss is tough, but these last two might have featured a little extra draining kick. Manager Pedro Grifol tried to keep things predominantly positive postgame in the face of adversity.
“Obviously this is a rivalry. And to take a 5-0 lead and a 5-1 lead and not be able to finish it is frustrating,” Grifol said. “But again, there’s no way in hell there’s blame to anybody here, especially when we are all giving the effort that this clubhouse is giving every single day to win baseball games.
“There’s mistakes here and there, but you know what? I’m not even going to harp on those. We’ll talk about them, the coaches will address some of the stuff tomorrow, but I’m not going to sit here and say we had a mistake here and a mistake there. There’s no way I’m going to do that. These guys are giving us above and beyond what they can every single day. As long as we are doing that, I’m good.”
Almost nobody entered this season believing the White Sox were going to be prime playoff contenders. Then again, nobody thought they would be 32 games under .500 and 26 games out of first in the American League Central just 62 games into the season.
Struggles such as those naturally gravitate to questioning of the manager’s job security. Grifol addressed that topic pregame on Wednesday, stridently pointing out he doesn’t intend to take the temperature of his job status on a daily basis.
“I’m comfortable with who I am as a baseball man and what I bring to the table,” Grifol said. “And these coaches are really good coaches that really care. We bleed this. This is what we do for a living.
“We’re not winning. So when you’re not winning, speculation gets higher and higher. It’s a part of what we do. We get signed up to win baseball games, and when you don’t, there’s always a possibility of a change being made. I get it all. I’ll answer the questions, but my answer is always going to be the same.”
