White Sox Offense Sleep Walks Through Another Ugly Loss

Stop me if you've heard this one before. The White Sox offense looked lifeless. Despite having 10 hits, including three from Tim Anderson, the White Sox dropped another game. Anderson also happened to have an RBI which has been hard to come by for the White Sox. This is the worst start the White Sox have had offensively in the last four years. In 2019 they scored at least five runs 18 times. In 2020 they did it 19 times. That number dropped to 16 in 2021. This season the White Sox have reached five-plus runs just eight times. On Wednesday night they had 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position. They only had two runs to show for it. They have been terrible with runners in scoring position. In their last seven games, they are 10-50 with runners in scoring position (.200). It gets even worse with the bases loaded. The White Sox are just 1-for-19 when the bases are loaded. Tony La Russa has used 37 different lineup combinations in 37 games. None of them seem to be working. The White Sox rank 21st in the MLB in batting average with a .228 mark. They are even worse in the scoring department. With only 128 runs scored they rank just 27th in the MLB. Their biggest issue seems to be a lack of walks. As a team, they are not putting together good at-bats. The White Sox rank dead last in the MLB with 82 walks. To put that in perspective they had 131 walks through 34 games last season. They can not use injuries as an excuse either. Outside of Eloy Jimenez, the roster has been at full strength during these past three games in Kanas City. It's not like they are playing the Yankees either. The Kansas City Royals are playing so badly that they fired their hitting coach before the series. Their pitching staff ranks 26th in the MLB in ERA and opponent batting average and 27th in WHIP. Somehow the White Sox are 13-15 when scoring four runs or fewer. The rest of the MLB has a combined .299 winning percentage. This is a testament to how good the White Sox pitching has been. Lucas Giolito gutted through five innings on Wednesday. He returned to the mound for the first time since May 10th after landing on the COVID list. His stuff was not working and he was clearly laboring on the mound. Yet he found a way to keep the White Sox in the game after only allowing two runs through five innings and striking out seven. But like so many starters before him, he was let down by the lack of run support. There are still 124 games to go. It's time for the offense to reset.