White Sox designated hitter Bryan Ramos noticed the zeroes on the scoreboard.
“I was looking at the score a couple of times saying, ‘What’s going on? Come on, we can do it,’” Ramos said.
Guardians starter Joey Cantillo retired the first 20 batters he faced Monday before Andrew Benintendi spoiled his bid for perfection with a single to right with two outs in the seventh.
The Sox finished with four hits, including a two-run home run by Ramos, in a 5-3 loss in front of 11,429 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
It’s the 112th defeat of the season for the Sox, extending the franchise record.
Cantillo allowed one run on two hits with 10 strikeouts and no walks in seven innings for his first major-league victory.
“(Cantillo) threw well, did a good job using the changeup, keeping our guys off-balance, we just didn’t do a good job making adjustments,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “Not a lot of good swings, we couldn’t figure out what he was doing.”
The Sox struck out 14 times while losing for the 15th time in their last 17 games.
At 33-112, the Sox are eight away from tying the record for the most losses in modern-day Major League Baseball history held by the 1962 expansion New York Mets (40-120). The Sox have 17 games remaining.
The Sox have lost 13 consecutive home games, setting a franchise record.
They fell behind early Monday, as opener Jared Shuster allowed two runs in the first inning. Josh Naylor drove in a run with a single and scored on a double by Lane Thomas when Jacob Amaya’s relay throw to the plate got past catcher Korey Lee.
David Fry hit a solo home run off Shuster in the third and Bo Naylor homered against Enyel De Los Santos in the fourth. A fielding error on a potential double-play grounder and three walks in the fifth led to another run for the Guardians, making it 5-0.
The attention turned to Cantillo, who entered Monday 0-3 with a 7.71 ERA in five big-league appearances (four starts) this season.
“He was mixing his pitches pretty well,” Ramos said. “He was pitching pretty well and you guys see it. That’s not a secret.”
Cantillo helped his own cause for the final out of the fourth inning, going behind his back to field Benintendi’s bouncer to the mound.
He remained perfect through six after José Ramírez caught Amaya’s liner to third that had an exit velocity of 103.6 mph.
Guardians right fielder Jhonkensy Noel made a nice running catch on a sinking liner hit by Luis Robert Jr. for the second out of the seventh.
Benintendi followed with his single to right, ending the drama. He advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a bloop single to left by Andrew Vaughn.
Ramos connected for a two-run home run to left, the first of his big-league career, to get the Sox within two in the eighth inning.
“That’s an awesome feeling,” Ramos said.
The Sox were within striking distance, but Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase struck out two in the ninth for his 43rd save. The Sox haven’t won consecutive games since three victories in a row June 27-29.
“We’re trying to get to the point where we’re playing good ball every night,” Sizemore said. “We’ve seen it, when we can execute and do everything right, we can pull out some wins. But we have to do the little things. Whether it’s the first, fifth or ninth inning. We can’t make mistakes and have to take advantage of opportunities. We’ve been able to do that on some games, but not every game.
“I’m not expecting guys to be perfect every time. We’re going to make mistakes. But it’s the little things we have to do if we’re going to win games. We can’t give away outs. We’ve got to execute all the time.”
