Another loss, but White Sox confident they'll get season turned around
The White Sox's stagnant offense seemingly caught a break Friday night.
Noah Syndergaard, who was 2-0 with a 1.04 ERA in his first two starts for the Angels, was scratched with an undisclosed illness and replaced by reliever Jimmy Herget, who had a 6.48 ERA in 8 appearances.
Not quite.
The change in starters did little to perk up the Sox's bats, and Los Angeles won the opener of a four-game series 5-1 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Even with center fielder Luis Robert back in the lineup after missing six games with a groin injury, the White Sox scored fewer than 3 runs for the 13th time in 19 games this season.
The Sox had only 2 hits and 18 straight batters went down in order between Yasmani Grandal reaching on an error with one out in the first inning and Jose Abreu singling with two outs in the seventh.
It's been a difficult April for the Sox all the way around, but Abreu sees much better days ahead for the defending AL Central champions.
"I think since the first game of the season, we've been fighting to get into a rhythm at home plate," Abreu said through translator Billy Russo. "Everybody's fighting to get into that rhythm. We haven't gotten to that point yet, but we're still fighting."
Most White Sox hitters are carrying subpar numbers, and that includes Abreu. The 2020 MVP is batting .212 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI.
No worries, yet.
"I personally think if you get frustrated, it's because you start hesitating about your talent," Abreu said. "If you're confident with the talent you have and your abilities, you don't have any reason to get frustrated because sooner than later, we will get the results we are expecting.
"I know everybody's working hard here, everybody's doing their best to get the results to get out of this tough moment. I have confidence in everybody here because we know we have the talent and it's just a matter of keep working, keep grinding."
Injuries have taken a big toll during the opening month, but Robert hit the ball hard in his return to the lineup and third baseman Yoan Moncada (oblique) could be back in about a week.
The Sox are hoping for good news on Andrew Vaughn, who had X-rays on his right hand/wrist after getting hit by a pitch in the ninth inning.
In his second start after coming off the injured list (abdominal strain), Lucas Giolito gave up solo home runs to Taylor Ward and Shohei Ohtani in the first inning before settling into a groove.
Giolito threw 99 pitches over 6 innings while allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk. He also had 7 strikeouts.
"Tonight, we competed, we battled," Giolito said. "Hitters were smoking the ball, just got the short end of the stick there. It (stinks) but we've just got to keep chugging along. But kind of like what Jose was saying, we know how talented we are.
"It's just a matter of getting a little bit more luck on our side and just kind of putting it all together. That's pretty much it. I think we just continue to play the game hard. I thought we did that tonight. Things didn't go our way."