3 reasons why 3 AL East teams are crushing the Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox are in the early part of a 39-game brutal stretch of schedule. It started with 13 straight games against the top two teams in the AL East, the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles, along with playing against the underachieving Toronto Blue Jays.

Through 11 of those 13 scheduled games, the White Sox are 1-10. This stretch has brought back the talk of the team being historically bad instead of being say, fun bad.

This stretch of getting crushed by AL East foes has the Sox now projected to lose 103 games this season according to Fangraphs.

What is causing the Sox to be on this skid besides the clear talent disparity? Well, there are three clear reasons...

Losing the long ball game.

Not being able to hit home runs in bunches is killing the Sox against the Yankees and the Orioles. Those two teams lead MLB in dingers, and they can get instant offense in a hurry.

A clear example of that was last Saturday when the Sox had a 3-0 lead going into the eighth inning. The Orioles blasted three home runs and walked out with a 5-3 victory.

The Blue Jays won yesterday 5-1 thanks to hitting three balls over the fence. The Sox cannot generate runs quickly while these three teams have had no trouble doing it against Chicago.

Not coming through with runners in scoring position.

The Sox were unable to cash in on scoring opportunities while the Orioles, Yankees, and Jays found ways.

For example, the Sox were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position yesterday and left 11 runners on base. They outhit the Blue Jays 10-6 overall and got just one bleeping run on a Gavin Sheets home run. The Sox had bases loaded to start the game and came away with zero runs.

Last Thursday had a controversial finish that cost the Sox a possible comeback win. That could have been avoided had the Sox not come away with just a single run in a bases-loaded situation to start the game. They need to cash in on these opportunities.

The bullpen is giving up leads and the rotation is struggling outside of Erick Fedde and Garrett Crochet.

Crochet had to throw a shutout to get the Southsiders their lone win during this stretch against the AL East. Garrett was also great on Sunday as was Fedde. Fedde was denied a shutout victory after the bullpen gave away a 3-0 lead.

Brad Keller was so bad against the Yankees that he was designated for assignment. Rookie Nick Nastrini got roughed up against the Blue Jays in Toronto. It was nice to see him bounce back and give up just three runs yesterday. Walks hurt him and issuing free passes has been hampering the rest of the pitching staff.

The Sox offense is so bad that the pitching cannot continue to put runners on base. John Brebbia has been getting blown up in relief. Mike Clevinger cannot get through five innings.

Leads are not safe, and the starting pitching has been shaky in eight of the 11 games. Even Fedde did not have a great start during this stretch.

The Sox have been outscored 63-30 in these 11 games that have sent the season back to historically bad.