The White Sox capped off a historic homestand with the meekest of efforts.
The Sox set a franchise first with their 3-1 loss to the Blue Jays: the first winless homestand of seven games or more. Once again, the lack of offense was a story. They came within one strike of being blanked before Korey Lee's solo shot prevented further ignominy in the form of an 11th shutout, but they've still lost eight consecutive games. They're now on pace to win only 43 games this season -- or 15, if they never win again.
The White Sox were limited to six baserunners even though Toronto starter Alek Manoah departed the game with elbow problems in the second inning. Andrew Vaughn had reached third with nobody out via a leadoff double and a wild pitch, but Manoah was able to retire the first two batters with Korey Lee popping out and Paul DeJong striking out, and Trevor Richards finished off the threat by surviving Dominic Fletcher's lineout to right field.
Those represented three of the White Sox's five at-bats with runners in scoring position on the evening, and they went hitless in the others, too.
Chris Flexen needed to be perfect to work with that level of support, but he had to settle for "effectively wild." He started off his night by striking out the side in the first around a two-out walk, but the walks were a bigger part of the story over the four innings that followed. He issued five of them over five innings, and while he stranded a pair of them in the second, his leadoff walk to Davis Schneider in the third came around to score on a pair of singles.
Likewise, he walked George Springer to start the fourth, and he scored on subsequent singles for all the runs the Blue Jays needed. They added one more on Justin Anderson's watch in the sixth, but at least he made Springer earn his way on with a leadoff double. He moved to third on Alejandro Kirk's single through the left side, then scored on the typical 8-4 fielder's choice (Fletcher charged Isiah Kiner-Falefa's liner convincingly enough to cause Kirk to hold, then cleanly handled the tricky hop and fired to second for the run-scoring force play).
The White Sox actually played pretty good defense. Along with Fletcher's improv, Nicky Lopez turned a tough inning-ending double play in the third inning with a counterintuitive turn on a tough feed, and DeJong made a fine diving stab and throw to take a single away from Bo Bichette. Unfortunately, those fielders have to hit, and they're not able to compete on that end of the ball. Only five White Sox hitters reached base, and Vaughn was the only one who did it twice.
Bullet points:
*Martín Maldonado is now hitting .081 after going 0-for-2 before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth, which meant the White Sox lost the DH, since that's where Lee started the game.
*Bryan Ramos went 0-for-3, meaning he's hitless in 14 plate appearances since coming back from the injured list.
