Renteria, White Sox snap six-game losing streak
Rick Renteria knows how to cope with extended losing streaks.
“Through a lot of experience and a lot of failure,” the Chicago White Sox's first-year manager offered.
The Sox did manage to snap their six-game losing streak Saturday night with a 5-4 interleague decision over the San Diego Padres.
Yolmer Sanchez decided the outcome with a one-out single in the ninth inning that scored Tyler Saladino on a close play at the plate.
“It's always great to win,” Sanchez said through an interpreter. “It's been a rough week for us but we battled every day.”
White Sox starter Dylan Covey is still looking for his first major-league win, but the right-hander settled down after giving up a leadoff home run to the Padres' Manuel Margot.
Covey struck out the side after Margot went deep for San Diego on the first pitch for the second straight game. He lasted 4⅓ innings and allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks while piling up 9 strikeouts.
“I was getting tired of getting beat with my mediocre stuff,” Covey said. “So I went out there and gave it all I had with every pitch. I would have liked to go deeper but the pitch count was climbing a little bit.”
The losing streak is no longer climbing, and Renteria did everything he could to help it end.
Renteria saw extended stretches of failure when he managed the Chicago Cubs to a 73-89 record in 2014. As a minor-league manager, Renteria was 43-97 with Class A Brevard County in 1998 and 58-86 with AAA Portland in 2007.
His message to the sliding White Sox?
“I think you remind them first, don't get used to losing,” Renteria said. “But that's all a process and all a consequence of a lot of different things. You're playing against major-league teams. To win a major-league ballgame is very difficult on a daily basis, obviously. And no matter who you're competing against, you never take anybody for granted.”
As the Sox slowly transition from a veteran team to a young team, expectations are running low.
Renteria is known for his strong teaching skills, and he's not going to give up on his struggling pupils.
“You've got to make sure you do your job and then the team that makes the fewest amount of mistakes — physically, emotionally and mentally — has the greater chance of having success at the end of the day,” Renteria said. “I think every single player that's in the big leagues is here for a reason, has the ability to do some things. I just try to remind them not to get down on themselves, don't beat yourselves up.
“Understand what we're doing and correct it. If there are things that we need to correct, let's work on it and get it better and then keep moving forward.”
Injuries to starting pitchers Carlos Rodon and James Shields have taken a toll on the rotation, which was 0-6 with a 6.82 ERA during the losing streak. The bullpen is also down three relievers, Nate Jones, Zach Putnam and Jake Petricka.
Add in an offense that entered Saturday ranked 13th in the American League with 132 runs scored and a defense that ranks 11th in the league and you can see why the White Sox hit a rough patch.
“Most of the stuff that's going on in terms of our club, they're still playing, they're still coming to the ballpark every day to do what they need to do,” Renteria said. “It's just baseball. There are moments when you have to have talks with your teams as it relates to possibly effort or things of that nature, but I don't think that's the case for our men. I think they're going out there trying to do their job.”