Jonathan Cannon issued a two-out walk to Pete Alonso in the third inning Friday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Chicago White Sox starter wasn’t particularly close with any of the four pitches.
That opened the door for a New York Mets rally.
Jesse Winker followed with an RBI double to right-center, scoring Alonso from first to give the Mets their first lead of the night. J.D. Martinez then hit a liner that just cleared the left-field wall for a two-run home run.
The Sox never recovered, losing 5-1 in front of 15,288.
“I ended up just losing focus a little bit with two outs,” Cannon said. “Walked Alonso, right-on-right, just a mental mistake there. Then the next thing you know, hit, hit, and it’s 4-1.
“Just got to be a little bit better locking in with two outs and being over the plate a little bit more.”
It was the 105th loss of the season for the Sox, who are one defeat shy of tying the franchise record of 106 held by the 1970 club.
The Sox have lost eight straight and 12 of 13.
This is the team’s third losing streak of at least eight games this season. They lost an American League record-tying 21 in a row July 10-Aug. 5 and 14 consecutive from May 22-June 6.
At 31-105, the Sox are 74 games under .500 for the first time in franchise history. They need to go 12-14 in their final 26 games to avoid tying the 1962 Mets (40-120) for the most losses in modern-day major-league history.
“(Cannon) didn’t quite have command of his fastball, but still was using other pitches,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “Really just one inning hurt him. We had a two-out walk. They got some hits and they made him pay.
“But overall he’s been throwing really good for us. They got the hits when they needed it and we got some guys on and just couldn’t get the big hit to help them out.”
Cannon allowed four runs on five hits with three strikeouts and four walks. He has allowed 14 runs and walked nine in his last 15-plus innings spanning three starts.
“I think it’s more of getting into bad counts, falling behind a lot of guys, walking a lot of guys,” Cannon said. “I feel like kind of my MO when I came up and in the minor leagues, was just throwing strikes — and I’ve been walking guys, getting myself into bad spots. I was able to escape the big one tonight with the bases loaded (allowing one run in the second inning), but you just can’t do that consistently.
“I think it’s just trusting my stuff a little bit more in the zone. The last couple starts, I’ve been trying to be a little nitpicky with my fastball and trying to really dot corners. The next thing you know, it’s 2-0, and I’ve got to come in the zone and that’s where I’ve been getting burnt. It’s just a little bit of a mindset shift. I thought the stuff was good. Just getting into some bad counts.”
Offensively, the Sox didn’t make the most of their opportunities, going 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
They finished with five hits, two from Andrew Benintendi, with 21 of the final 22 batters retired. That included a nice leaping catch in foul territory by right fielder Tyrone Taylor, who landed in the netting but secured the ball to retire Luis Robert Jr. in the eighth inning.
“Those guys are doing stuff every day, I thought the at-bats were good,” Sizemore said. “We had bases loaded in the second and (Robert) hits the ball right at a guy (center fielder Harrison Bader) and gets them out of a jam. A couple of other hard hits and after that we couldn’t string anything together.
“It was a tough day offensively. The back end of their bullpen did really well. But the at-bats are there. Believe me, there’s no shortage of work or drills that we are not doing in the cage or on the field. Sometimes you don’t get the hits or they don’t fall in and you can’t get them when you need them. It’s just baseball.”
