Before Friday’s series opener in Seattle, Chicago White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi was asked about his homerless drought, which extended to Aug. 30 of last season.
“All it takes is one swing, one click to get going,” Benintendi told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’m searching for that.”
Something clicked in the sixth inning.
Benintendi’s solo shot to right-center field off Mariners rookie Bryan Woo broke a tie, but the White Sox couldn’t hold on and suffered a 3-2 defeat, their fifth in the past six games.
Benintendi and the White Sox will look to stop the slide when the teams meet again Saturday in Seattle.
Chicago’s Lucas Giolito (5-4, 3.54 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound against fellow right-hander Logan Gilbert (4-4, 4.38).
Benintendi, who signed a five-year, $75 million contract in the offseason, the richest in franchise history, acknowledges his first season in Chicago hasn’t gone to plan.
“I’ve been frustrated pretty much all year just trying to find something — to get going into any kind of groove, which I feel I haven’t been in one time this year. Just show up, keep playing.”
Benintendi has been dealing with a sore right hand, which was ailing even before he was hit by a pitch Wednesday in Los Angeles against the Dodgers.
“Every day I hear stuff about he hasn’t hit a home run yet,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “You know what, the guy’s probably at 50 percent.”
What’s been ailing the White Sox of late is their inability to score without hitting the ball out of the park. All of their runs in a 5-4 loss to the Dodgers on Thursday came via solo homers, as did both of their runs Friday, with Gavin Sheets also going deep.
The White Sox have struck out 16 times in each of their past two games.
“I like the fact that we’re hitting homers; now we gotta find a way to put up crooked numbers,” Grifol said. “We do that, we’ll be in good shape. … It was a good ballgame; we just came out on the wrong end of it.”
While the White Sox are struggling at the plate, the Mariners’ Teoscar Hernandez continued his torrid June with a run-scoring double and a solo homer Friday night. Hernandez is batting .364 this month with three homers and 10 RBIs in 12 games.
The Mariners won despite stranding 11 runners and going 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position.
“We did a lot of really good things offensively except for getting that guy in from third,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “It was a struggle (Friday), but a lot of really good at-bats.”
Giolito, who is 1-1 with a 7.45 ERA in two career starts against Seattle, didn’t get a decision Sunday against Miami in his most recent outing, but he allowed just one run on six hits over seven innings, with one walk and eight strikeouts. He left with a four-run lead in a game the White Sox lost 6-5.
Gilbert lasted just three innings in a 9-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif., on Sunday in his most recent appearance, allowing seven runs (six earned) on eight hits. Gilbert is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 16 strikeouts in three career starts covering 13 innings against the White Sox.
–Field Level Media
