White Sox determined 'to be the group that turns this around'

ST. PETERSBURG -- If you’re just tuning in and need a quick summation of the White Sox difficult season, Tuesday night’s 5-1 defeat against the Rays at Tropicana Field should get you up to speed.

There was very little traffic on the bases -- five 1-2-3 innings in all -- and no big hits when limited opportunities emerged.

Meanwhile, White Sox pitcher Michael Soroka (0-4) lost the strike zone at inopportune early-game junctures. In a seminal moment during the third inning, Soroka battled through a gutsy nine-pitch at-bat. But Randy Arozarena crushed that ninth pitch for a two-run homer.

For the second time this season, the White Sox (8-28) are 20 games under .500. They were held to one run or none for the 13th time this season. There were few bright spots, but the lights flickered briefly on Paul DeJong’s seventh-inning homer, which allowed Chicago to avoid its 10th shutout.

“It’s not too much different than what I’ve been telling you guys [reporters] for the whole year about me,’’ Soroka said. “There’s a lot of good. There’s some bad. And we’re just getting bit.

“Where we got to a few weeks ago, wins started to look a little more obvious to us. It was right there. We never felt out of it. That’s important. That’s what keeps the fight going. I think we’ve all gotten to a point where we want to be the group that turns this around. We want to be the guys who say, you know, ‘Enough’s enough.’ We just have to start putting together full games.’’

That did not happen for the White Sox on Tuesday night.

Soroka had two walks in the second inning, and that fueled the Rays’ two-run frame.

In the third, after Yandy Díaz reached on DeJong’s error, Soroka had a memorable one-out battle with Arozarena. Soroka got up 0-2, then Arozarena mixed in three fouls with three balls outside the zone. On pitch No. 9, Soroka left his slider too high in the zone, and Arozarena deposited it a Statcast-projected 363 feet away into the left-field bleachers.

“I made a lot of good pitches to him,’’ Soroka said. “But I made one bad one, and he made me pay.’’

White Sox manager Pedro Grifol praised Soroka’s tenacity. Soroka got through five innings on 102 pitches (59 strikes), and Brad Keller pitched the final three innings, so at least the bullpen was preserved.

“He [Soroka] threw too many pitches, but he ended up strong [retiring eight of his last nine batters],’’ Grifol said.

Offensively, the White Sox didn’t offer much.

The best chance came in the fifth. With two outs, DeJong punched a single to left, Korey Lee reached on an infield hit just beyond Rays starter Zach Eflin and Nicky Lopez loaded the bases with a fielder’s choice when shortstop José Caballero misplayed his grounder before throwing late to second base.

Eflin, who leads the Majors in walks per nine innings (0.75), went 3-0 to Gavin Sheets. The chance was snuffed out when Sheets aggressively swung at the next pitch and lifted a fly ball to right field.

“We had the bases loaded there, and Sheets has been clutch for us all year long,’’ Grifol said. “He has been swinging the bat good. He was going to be really aggressive there and see if we can hit a ball in the gap or into the seats.

“Two-seamer on the outside part of the plate. He made a good pitch on a 3-0 count. He made the perfect pitch.’’

The net result was another imperfect outing for the White Sox.