/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61593481/1043187578.jpg.0.jpg)
The White Sox seem to be endeavoring to end this season in the most dispiriting way possible, losing 8-3 to the Minnesota Twins, their fourth in a row and seven of the last eight. They’ve been outscored 54-19 in that span. Draft pick No. 3 is clinched for 2019; a 100-loss season in 2018 remains on the table.
The Sox broke the MLB record for team strikeouts in the season in the first inning, and it only went down from there. Whatever was left of Carlos Rodon’s control went to 7-11 for cigarettes before the game and never came back. He lasted one inning and six batters into the second before being pulled, ending with six hits, four walks, and eight earned runs.
The second inning was ugly all around. With the score 2-1 Twins after the first, Rodon gave up a double on some quality I-can’t-see-it-you-get-it-no-I-got-it-oops-never-mind defense from the trio Ryan Cordell, Avisail Garcia, and Yoán Moncada. This was followed by a walk, a single sandwiched between mound visits, another double, and another walk before Jeanmar Gomez came in to relieve Rodón, who left with the score 5-1 and the bases loaded. Gomez didn’t do much better, allowing a walk, a sacrifice fly, and another bloopy single falling between our Three Stooges. All three of Gomez’s inherited runners scored before he got out of the inning, the score now 8-1. Mercifully, that was all the scoring for the Twins, as the bullpen managed zeroes the rest of the night.
The White Sox scored three runs, one in the first on an Omar Narvaez single that very briefly gave the Sox the lead, and two pointless ones in the ninth on a Twins error and a Cordell sac fly.
Tonight’s three things...
This rebuild might actually work: Aaron Bummer was pretty good, I guess? And Moncada looked decent at the plate, with two doubles, and only one strikeout.
I watched so you didn’t have to: That second inning, ugh.
This is what being a Sox fan feels like: Carlos Rodon — merely physically fatigued, or needs surgery?
As bad as the season has been, and as relieved as I’ll be to not have to watch another loss, I’ll still miss baseball when it’s gone. So let’s do it again tomorrow, shall we? Dylan Covey takes the bump at 2:10 p.m. in a final attempt for win No. 63.