Loss to Cubs another painful example of the White Sox's current predicament

In the first inning of Friday's interleague game against the rival Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, Carson Fulmer, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2015 draft, labored through 39 pitches and gave up 5 runs on 3 hits, 2 walks and 1 hit batter.

Leading leading off the second for the Chicago White Sox, cleanup hitter Yolmer Sanchez thought bunting was a good idea, for some reason. He rolled back to Cubs starter Tyler Chatwood and was an easy out.

Trying to get a rally going in the third inning, Matt Davidson and Tim Anderson did the right thing against the erratic Chatwood. They walked.

But just like that, Davidson did the wrong thing. He strayed too far off second base and was picked off by Cubs catcher Willson Contreras.

There was another baserunning mistake in the fifth, when Jose Abreu's single scored Adam Engel from third base. Waved home by third-base coach Nick Capra, Nicky Delmonico also tried scoring from second and Cubs left fielder Kyle Schwarber easily threw him out at home.

There was also an error by center fielder Leury Garcia and another play that wasn't made by Daniel Palka in right.

In the seventh inning, an error by Davidson at third base opened the door to 4 unearned runs.

Like most Sox games this season, Friday's 11-2 loss to the Cubs was difficult to watch.

Kudos if you made it through, or should it be condolences?

Either way, the game was another painful example of the White Sox's current predicament.

How should this team to be judged when only a handful of players figure to be around for what still looks to be a promising future?

Manager Rick Renteria is convinced the Sox are going to be much better when prospects like Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech, Luis Robert, Dane Dunning, Blake Rutherford and Dylan Cease are on board, but he is still responsible for getting the current roster playing much better baseball.

"This is going to be a learning experience for them right now because anybody can be happy when things are going great," Renteria said. "You've got to find out the character of people when things are not going as well. I think these experiences that they're going through right now will hopefully, if we guide them in the right direction, propel them to be stronger professionals.

"Ultimately, as things start to get better, this club starts to get better, we start executing a bit better, we do things that help us win ballgames."

Renteria is holding out hope that things do get better as the season progresses.

Let's be honest, they can't get much worse.