Samardzija has another rough start as Sox lose to Boston

Like everybody else, executive vice president Kenny Williams is at a loss to explain the Chicago White Sox' season.

Sometimes the Sox get hot and go on impressive winning streaks. Many other times, they run cold and the losses pile up. Every now and then, they simply spin their wheels. For a team that beefed up last winter and anticipated making a playoff run, the season has been baffling.

“I'm like a lot of people, I think, in evaluating our team,” Williams said before Monday night's 5-4 loss to the Red Sox. “I have not watched a team that we have had this long and still not been able to figure it out.

“Generally come June, I've got a pretty good idea as to what our identity is, and I can look at a schedule, and I can say, ‘We should win this game. We're going to have a tougher time with this one. We're going to win this one.'

“I don't know with this club that I've been able to do that. In that respect, it's a little more difficult to evaluate. We're going to all get together as we do on a regular basis and continue to discuss it, but this is a perplexing situation because it's not to going to surprise me one bit if we do rattle off the 7 or 10 games (wins) that I spoke of last week.

“But at the same time it's not going to surprise me if we go out and we play a lot less than the standards we want to play. It's something that is going to require more in-depth thought and discussion than we've ever had, at least since I've been here.”

Five straight:

Jeff Samardzija pitched well enough to win against the Angels last Wednesday, allowing 1 run in 7 innings.

A lack of run support against Los Angeles tagged Samardzija with his fourth straight loss, but he was much more deserving of No. 5 Monday night against Boston.

While run support was again a problem, Samardzija (8-10) pitched 5⅔ innings against the Red Sox and allowed 5 runs on 8 hits while hitting two batters and walking two.

Rusney Castillo did the bulk of the damage for Boston. The rookie right fielder hit a 3-run homer in the second inning after Samardzija hit Hanley Ramirez with two outs and allowed a single to Brock Holt. In the sixth, Castillo put the Red Sox in front 5-1 with a 2-run double off Samardzija.

“He got me today,” Samardzija said. “Castillo put some good at-bats out there. Again, it goes to putting runners on base.”

Trailing 5-2 in the ninth, the White Sox made it close with a pair of runs but it wasn't enough to prevent a second straight loss.

“Castillo, he got (Samardzija) twice,” manager Robin Ventura said. “We didn't do anything offensively to really help him.”