White Sox Hit New Season Low After 10-5 Home Loss To Nationals

Despite gaining an early lead, the Chicago White Sox suffered a 10-5 loss to the Washington Nationals at U.S. Cellular Field on Tuesday night.

White Sox Hit New Season Low After 10-5 Home Loss To Nationals

The White Sox fell to a season-low .500 mark at 29-29, and have now lost four consecutive games, and 19 of their last 25 meetings.

Once 23-10 with a six-game lead on the AL Central, Chicago has now dropped to fourth in the division, 3 1/3 games behind the first-place Cleveland Indians.

Right-hander Mat Latos certainly appeared to struggle on Tuesday. After cushions of 3-0 and 5-2 in the first two innings, Latos gave up the White Sox’ lead and was unable to get out of the fifth inning. He went 4 1/3 innings, allowing six runs, all earned, on five hits and four walks.

“It was just a (very poor) performance, period,” Latos said. “I don’t know. I was just fighting against myself, mechanics wise or whatever. I walked three or four, I don’t know, just walked a (crap) load of people. It was a poor effort on my behalf.”

Frustrated manager Robin Ventura seemed to agree. “Looking at tonight, the free passes were (not good),” Ventura said. “You give up the lead. You know you start out, and their guy is struggling. You get some runs and give it back. That is the part that takes the wind out of you. The free passes are going to come back and haunt you.”

The Sox led 1-0 three batters in, as Jose Abreu followed walks by Adam Eaton and Austin Jackson with an RBI single. They pushed another run across with a J.B. Shuck RBI walk, although they failed to capitalize further by leaving the bases loaded. Latos gave up two in the second.

Chicago then had three more runs in the third. With one out, Eaton took a hit by pitch, Jackson moved him to third, and Abreu scored him with a sac fly to retake the lead. Todd Frazier then watched the first three out of the zone, then blitzed Joe Ross by pounding his 3-0 pitch over the wall in center field for a two-run homer, thus bringing the score to 5-2.

The bulk of Latos’ problems came in the fourth. He got behind in the count (Wilson Ramos slammed a 2-0 fastball to left for a single), and was unable to muster enough power to put Nationals batters away. Ramos scored when Anthony Rendon got down and hit a curveball just over the wall in left field. That put the score at 5-4, but that quickly turned into 6-5 one inning later.

After Michael Taylor erased his own leadoff single by leaving early on a steal attempt and getting picked off, Latos walked Ben Revere. Jayson Werth then singled to bring Bryce Harper to the plate. Harper fired a double off Dan Jennings over Jackson’s head in center to score two runs.

The top five Chicago hitters– Eaton, Jackson, Abreu, Frazier and Melky Cabrera — combined to reach base 13 times. The bottom four hitters combined to go 0-for-15 with two walks and five strikeouts.

“We just have to keep battling,” Eaton said. “That is the name of the game. None of us are having fun right now, and baseball can be brutal at times. It is always brutal to be honest with you. If you fail seven out of 10 times, you’re a Hall of Fame player. We have taken our lumps, but hopefully we can learn from it. We are definitely in a valley right now. We have to get out of it.”

The two teams will face off again at Cellular Field on Wednesday night, with newly-acquired right-hander James Shields starting for the White Sox against the Nationals (35-23, 1st in NL East).

PHOTO: CHICAGO, IL – JUNE 7: Danny Espinosa #8 of the Washington Nationals tosses the ball to teammate Daniel Murphy #20 to force out Adam Eaton #1 of the Chicago White Sox in the sixth inning at U.S. Cellular Field on June 7, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)