Losing to the Chicago White Sox in April is supposedly embarrassing
The Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. A local Tampa sports director viewed it as an embarrassment.
Much has been made to the Chicago White Sox' awful start to the season. It has been historically bad.
At the same time, April is not even over yet. We still have five more months to go! Now Sox fans can be excused for being frustrated with this start because we have seen this before. Last year the Sox got off to a terrible start and never recovered. The end result was 101 losses and the contention window getting slammed shut.
This team is trending to be even worse.
You know things are going bad when even getting a rare April win is considered an embarrassment.
Rays fans, you get 24 hours to let it rip on this app without me giving you the spin zone. Getting dog-walked by a 3-win team is embarrassing. Just have to be 100 percent honest.
— Evan Closky (@ECloskyWTSP) April 27, 2024
The Sox snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 9-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. The Rays are struggling to start the season as the defeat dropped them to a game under .500.
Things must be going really bad for the Rays to have one of Tampa's local television sports anchors react this way. Although to be fair, the Rays play in the toughest division in baseball in the AL East. So losing any ground, even in April, can be damaging in the long run.
At the same time, and maybe this is being out of town stupid, losing a single game in April should not dash the Rays' potential playoff hopes. Fangraphs projects Tampa to go 72-63 the rest of the season. The Sox are terrible, but they also found a way to beat the Atlanta Braves this season. No one in Atlanta reacted as if it was a rock bottom moment.
Sometimes the White Sox are going to stumble upon a starting pitcher who just did not have his best stuff like with happened to Zach Eflin. He gave up five runs, four of which were earned, and nine hits in six innings of work.
However, it should be unacceptable anytime you allow Chris Flexen to look like a Cy Young winner on the mound. He pitched five strong innings, and the bullpen took care of the rest. Flexen was demoted to the bullpen recently but is back in the starting rotation for reasons that are hurting Nick Nastrini's development.
It just shows you how the rest of the league views the White Sox right now. They are the unofficial "get right" team and if the opponent fails to secure a win, it is viewed as an embarrassment.
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