CHICAGO -- The 2023 White Sox have played five series, and the team has yet to win one following an 8-4 loss to the Orioles on a cold and rainy Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
In their 16 games total, during which they have a 6-10 record, the White Sox also have yet to win back-to-back games.
Are those season-altering numbers? With 5 1/2 months and 146 games of baseball remaining, certainly not. But are they concerning? Absolutely, especially given the various issues with which the team has struggled so far.
Sunday’s loss featured seven walks by White Sox pitchers (one intentional), bringing the team’s total for the series to 26. With 81 walks in total, Chicago ranks second in baseball behind Oakland (86).
“I can only speak for me,” said White Sox starter Dylan Cease, whose five walks in six innings during Sunday’s no-decision gave him 12 against 29 strikeouts over 22 1/3 innings. “I need to adjust a little bit quicker and just see where my misses are. ... I don't feel I did a great job of that today.”
Or, put simply:
“Just in general,” Cease said, “walks will really kill you."
Errors don’t help either. Chicago’s defense has been improved overall in ‘23, with Andrew Benintendi, Luis Robert Jr. and Oscar Colás, for instance, comprising one of the club’s best defensive outfields in years.
But it was a Jake Burger error at third base on a two-out Terrin Vavra grounder that extended the fourth inning to allow Cedric Mullins’ two-run triple, shrinking the White Sox lead from 4-1 to 4-3. Burger has worked tirelessly at improving his defense at third, although he also played a great deal of first base during Spring Training.
That error was a disappointment. Burger also saw it as a moment of growth.
“You know, it never feels good to do that,” Burger said. “For me, it feels like it’s always with Cease on the mound. It’s kind of disappointing to me, but I think last year I probably would have made another mistake in the game.
“Last year, I held on to it for a lot more. Obviously it’s something I’ll work on, those types of plays, tomorrow with [third base and infield coach] Eddie [Rodriguez], the back-side ground balls. I felt like I bounced back pretty well with the chances I had. All I can do is keep working.”
Offensively, Burger is having no issues, as he homered for the third straight game. His 367-foot drive to right followed Gavin Sheets’ three-run blast off Baltimore top prospect Grayson Rodriguez, completing a four-run first.
After that three-hit opener with two walks, including the first of the year for Robert, the White Sox managed only four hits and a walk the rest of the way.
“He ended up going to his offspeed stuff, and he was throwing it for strikes. He was mixing it up,” said White Sox manager Pedro Grifol of Rodriguez. “He made some adjustments. But we’ve got to continue to tack on if we want to put those types of games away.”
Cease struck out five over six innings, with Grifol letting him throw a career-high 113 pitches to battle through his final frame. Cease’s average four-seam fastball velocity checked in at 94.4 mph, which was down 1.6 mph from his average, according to Statcast -- although part of that drop could have been due to the weather, with rain that led to a 2-hour, 22-minute delay before the start of the game and a first-pitch temperature of 43 degrees.
"We'll see where it's at over the next couple of starts. Being cold probably doesn't help, but it's something everyone has to deal with,” Cease said. “It was a little down today. But [I’m] not super worried about it.”
“Dylan is one of the best pitchers in baseball. He had enough pitches to go into that sixth and finish the sixth. I’d do it again tomorrow,” Grifol said. “Everybody knows the bullpen has been taxed a little bit. Either way, Dylan is one of the best pitchers in the game.”
An Interleague series against Philadelphia begins Monday night, weather permitting, with the White Sox not losing confidence after going 0-4-1 in their first five series.
“We know our time is coming,” Burger said. “We know we have the talent in here, and all the confidence in the world with each guy, and also the coaching staff.”
“There’s still a lot of season left,” Cease said. “We’ve just got to clean it up a little bit.”