Sox struggles witnessed by sparse turnout
The White Sox’ attendance this season — or lack thereof — has been a hot topic of discussion the past few weeks.
It was another small crowd for Friday night’s interleague game against the Astros at U.S. Cellular Field, which was actually a good thing.
Only 22,452 had to personally witness the Sox struggle in all phases of the game while getting rolled by Houston, 8-3.
Let’s start with the pitching.
Struggling starter Gavin Floyd went 6 innings and only allowed 4 hits while striking out nine.
Not too shabby, but Floyd again failed to keep the ball in the park.
He served up a solo home run to Brett Wallace in the second inning and a 2-run shot to Jed Lowrie in the fifth.
Floyd has allowed a home run in each of his last five starts, 10 total. The right-hander is 1-3 with a 10.17 ERA over that stretch.
Afterward, Floyd (4-6) said he actually turned a corner in his latest loss.
“I think today was a big step for me because I felt great,” Floyd said. “I just felt like I was going out there and having fun and attacking the mitt. Yeah, we lost today, that’s always a downer. I’m trying to take the positives. I felt good. Just kind of continue on, work on it, keep on battling and look six days from now.”
There have been some bright spots in the Sox’ bullpen this season — Nate Jones, Jesse Crain, Matt Thornton and, for the most part, Addison Reed.
But there are also some relievers that need to shape up pretty fast before they are shipped out.
Left-handers Hector Santiago and Will Ohman are in that boat, and they allowed 3 runs on 3 hits in a combined 2 innings of work.
As for the defense, Alexei Ramirez had an awful seventh inning.
The White Sox’ shortstop made an error and then chased Houston’s Jose Altuve back to first base after he was picked off by Thornton.
Problem was, Justin Maxwell was on third base at the time and he scored as Ramirez chased down Altuve.
“We’ve just got to be more head’s up and be able to see (Maxwell) take off,” Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “We were sloppy defensively. We’re going to get better.”
The offense piled up 12 hits against Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez and four relievers, but the White Sox went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners.
“Rodriguez was good,” Ventura said. “He was managing the game. When we got guys on he found a way to throw that better pitch, keep us off balance, not let us get anything. We had guys on, we kept getting that rally with two outs. He was able to withstand that.”
Dayan Viciedo had to leave the game after the fifth inning with tightness in both hamstrings. Viciedo said he was fine after the game, and Jordan Danks replaced him in left field.
Danks got his first major-league hit when he singled leading off the eighth inning.
“I figure it’s got to come some time and I was just happy it came early,” Danks said. “I think being in big-league camp for the last three years has kind of prepared me for this, and being in Triple-A and facing that competitive pitching.
“I feel like I belong. I’m just trying to carry on what I was doing down there (Class AAA Charlotte) and bring it up here.”
sgregor@dailyherald.com