Finding ways to lose

The abysmal White Sox continued their homestand tonight with the Cleveland Indians coming to town after the Sox were swept in their shortened series against the Twins. The quiet Sox bats showed no signs of waking up which is a shame because they wasted yet another stellar start by a starting pitcher. This time, Dylan Axelrod was the victim of the putrid Sox offense. Axelrod held down the Indians to one run in six innings of work. Unfortunately the less-than-threatening Sox lineup  held true to the trends tonight struggling to get on base and hitting with runners in scoring position.

With no margin for error, the Sox are keeping their fans on their toes by finding new ways to lose every night. Tonight, they brought out a few surprises from their bag of tricks;  quite possibly the fastest three outs ever recorded after they had runners on first and second with nobody out, throwing a ball into center field on a second base pick off attempt and misjudging a bloop single in left field that all contributed to the 3-2 loss.

The Sox grasped a 2-1 lead in their half of the 7th when the Sox found themselves with runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Surely, they had Indians' starter Justin Masterson on the ropes as he was in and out of the strike zone all night. But alas, Blake Tekotte (running for Hector Gimenez) was picked off at second base then two pitches later Alejandro De Aza grounded into a double play to end the inning and seeminly set up the Indians come back.

And there's no better White Sox pitcher to give up the lead than Matt Thornton.

In a "what to do with runners on 1st and 2nd situation" the Indians were aided by White Sox stupidity. Thornton tried to pick off Drew Stubbs but made a bad throw that ended up in center field which advanced both runners. Two batters later Asdrubal Cabrera ripped a single to center field to plate the two runners to give the Indians a 3-2 lead. 

Basically nothing is working for the White Sox.

Tonight is their 4th loss in a row and drops them to a 7-12 record.
That's a last place record in the A.L. Central.

It doesn't get any easier as Jose Quintana will try and throw a perfect game to try and get a White Sox win tomorrow night.