Struggling White Sox search for any bright spot as losses, stumbles become the norm

CHICAGO, Ill. - The bright spots are hard to come by for the Chicago White Sox.

On Saturday, Garrett Crochet struck out a career-high 10 batters in 4 2.3 innings pitched. The young pitcher aiming to be the Sox's next ace took a step further as he works up his stamina.

That was about it.

The MLB branded X account, formerly known as Twitter, had more posts about the White Sox campfire milkshake and Simone Biles (2) than actual team accomplishments (1).

Moral victories mean nothing in the wide world of sports, but the Sox could use a few of those right now.

Still, redemption is always around the corner in sports. For the Sox, it's a chance to get one of the three games against the Reds before a three-game series against the Royals.

White Sox manager Pedro Grifol attested to the duality of the game of baseball.

"Good thing is you get at it tomorrow," Grifol said. "The bad thing you play in tomorrow, right? And you just got to flush these things."

The Sox, mired in what's become a terrible, horrible, no good and very bad start to a season, have had to try and flush a loss 12 times sitting at 2-12.

"There's nothing you can do other than get a good rest to get back out, get back after it," Grifol said.

Plenty expected a struggle of a start for the Sox. It's been worse than expected.

On Saturday, there was another new low. The Sox had a season-low two team hits. It was the team's fifth game with three or fewer hits and the eighth game with four or fewer hits.

The White Sox have also scored a major league-low 30 runs through 14 games.

The Associated Press reported the Guaranteed Rate Field crowd of 22,598 started chanting "Sell the team! Sell the team!" at one point during the game.

The White Sox are on pace to win 27 games. That's seven games away from MLB record for fewest wins in a season. That belongs to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. They finished the 1899 season with a 20-134 record.

"For us right now, just a tough skid," Crochet said.

Amid the struggles, it's still only April. Outfielder Gavin Sheets carries the right optimism with him.

"We just got to continue to put the work in and come ready to play every day," Sheets said. "I promise everybody's working. I promise they're trying to get it going and I fully believe that we'll get it going."

Some of the struggles are just bad luck.

Losing Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert Jr. and Eloy Jiménez, the Sox's most experienced and potent bats, to injury not even a month into the season certainly will lead to offensive struggles.

"We're all thinking of those guys and definitely can't wait until we get them back," Crochet said. "But I mean, that's baseball. Everybody goes through that at some point or another."

Crochet noted this is something the Sox have dealt with every year he's been with the team.

"It's always next man up mentality," Crochet said.

The last thing the White Sox will do is make excuses for their play. They could very well do that this early on, but Sheets didn't waver in his words.

This team can't stop looking for a way to turn things around.

"Regardless if guys are out or not, we got to go about our business," Sheets said. "We got to put in the work and, we got to show up ready to play every day."

There very well could be a change coming.

A player or two could get into a groove. The pitching rotation, which has a couple minor league players expected to reach the big leagues this year, could get an influx of more youth. Perhaps the same could happen for the offense.

In a season of 162 games, there will always be enough time for situations to change in the Sox's favor.

Until then, though, the team will keep searching for something to lift it out of its rut.

"You can't change things," Sheets said. "You got to trust your ability and that's what we need to do."