Column: After 50 games, Chicago White Sox's season is essentially over before Memorial Day — again
The best matchup in the Chicago White Sox's 6-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners on a soggy Wednesday afternoon occurred before the game even began.
Unfortunately, many in the announced crowd of 10,556 weren't paying attention.
After most players left the field following the national anthem, White Sox pitchers Cam Booser and Fraser Ellard stood still with their caps over their chest as if the song was still going on. On the other side of the field, Mariners players Miles Mastrobuoni and Mitch Garver did likewise, standing at attention without moving their heads.
It was a standoff in the rain to see who would be the last man standing.
Mariners players came by with towels to try to dry off Mastrobuoni's bald head. The scoreboard video crew came by to capture the two Sox players up close, and soon all four were up on the video board on a split screen, though few in the stands had any idea what was going on.
Finally, when Sox starter Shane Smith began warming up on the mound for the opening pitch, Ellard peeled off toward the dugout after an umpire prompted him. Eventually Mastrobuoni outdueled Booser and was declared the winner of the standoff, which ended about a minute before the first pitch.
When it comes to a White Sox game, you have to find your entertainment value wherever you can. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you can miss it.
'You've got to have fun in this game,' shortstop Chase Meidroth said. 'It's a long year. A lot of ups and downs. So the way to stay sane is having fun and this is a kid's game. It's a dream. It's fun to be here every day.'
For the rookies, maybe. For Luis Robert Jr., maybe not. One day after admitting no team would want to trade for him right now, Robert went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and saw his average drop to .178.
As for the game, the Sox had another nightmare. They overcame an early three-run deficit, then blew a one-run lead in the eighth when a single and error by left fielder Michael A. Taylor put the leadoff runner on second and Leody Taveras stroked Mike Vasil's next pitch over the right-field wall for a two-run home run to give the Mariners a 6-5 lead.
Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz, who has not allowed an earned run this season, pitched a scoreless ninth for his major-league-leading 16th save.
The Sox have lost six of seven, and Pope Leo XIV's fandom hasn't changed things.
How disappointing was the loss after battling back?
'Yeah, we're trying to win the game, and obviously to give up the lead late is tough,' manager Will Venable said. 'Overall a good game, guys battling and competing.'
That's a familiar refrain that Sox fans heard last year from a different manager.
The Sox were 15-35 after Wednesday's loss and 18 games out of first in the American League Central. Last year there were also 15-35 and 18 games back after 50 games. That's Sox symmetry.
For a second straight year, the season is essentially over before Memorial Day, and only die-hards and folks with free tickets are still around to watch how it plays out.
A small crowd braved raw conditions on a chilly afternoon, just as they did Tuesday night in the 1-0 Sox win. Jordan Leasure, who closed out that victory, said the fact so many fans stuck around until the end Tuesday, despite a 1½-hour rain delay, was comforting.
'It's pretty exciting, fans sticking around through the rain and obviously the weather (afterward) wasn't great either,' Leasure said Wednesday. 'Being able to see so many there in the ninth inning and they're all standing up and cheering, it definitely gives us a boost. We're very grateful for them.'
If only Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf were as grateful to the remaining fans as his players.
Shane Smith, the Sox's best pitcher in his rookie season, lasted five innings after a rough start. He walked the first two men he faced and served up a three-run home run to Julio Rodríguez that landed in the patio section underneath the right-center-field bleachers.
'Early on it was I couldn't finish an outing,' Smith said. 'Now it's rocky starts. It's just finding the middle between those two. Not putting too much stock into what you're doing. You can't get to the fifth inning if you don't get through the first.'
A Tim Elko solo home run in the third and back-to-back blasts from Lenyn Sosa and Joshua Palacios in the fourth saw the Sox take a 4-3 lead, only to have Brandon Eisert cough it up in the sixth on a solo home run to Cal Raleigh. Meidroth's opposite-field RBI single in the seventh put the Sox on top again, and things suddenly looked bright.
So who would close?
Venable eschews a closer, preferring matchups instead.
'These guys are all capable of getting outs,' he said before the game. 'It's just a matter of when it happens in the game for them. I think there's some bullpens that are constructed where you can have a seventh-, eighth-, ninth-inning guy if you want. Ours just isn't constructed like that.'
Well, that's on the Sox then for being the outlier when it comes to bullpen construction.
Leasure, who did the job Tuesday for his first save of 2025, was used in a 4-4 tie in the seventh Wednesday and managed to escape a bases-loaded jam. Vasil, who also has one save, had no such luck in the eighth, posting the team's eighth blown save in 12 opportunities.
Maybe a team as bad as the Sox doesn't really need a closer, but it does need some lockdown relievers if it ever hopes to turn this thing around. Bryse Wilson, who lost his brief chance at being a starter when Adrian Houser was signed, was asked Wednesday if the demotion to the bullpen was a 'learning lesson' for him.
'Kind of more of a kick in the ass,' he replied.
It was nice to hear some honesty. Maybe some others could use a kick as well.
But at this point, you have to wonder if the Sox are just satisfied with competing.
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