KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse for the White Sox coming out of the All-Star break, they took worse to a new 2019 low Tuesday.
On a night when almost everything went sideways in an 11-0 loss to the Royals, prized rookie left fielder Eloy Jimenez badly injured his right elbow colliding with center fielder Charlie Tilson on the warning track. Jimenez is headed to the injured list for the second time this season.
The Sox are sending him to Chicago for an MRI exam and to have the elbow examined by doctors, an ominous sign pointing to an extended absence. Jimenez appeared to grab his right shoulder before going down on the track after he and Tilson got tangled up on Tilson’s catch of Whit Merrifield’s fly leading off the first against Dylan Cease.
Both players called for the ball.
“It’s a tough play,” a dejected Tilson said. “We are both running full-speed. I called it, called it late. He probably didn’t hear me. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about it. Really unfortunate. As an outfielder, you feel terrible, especially for a guy like Eloy who means so much to our lineup.”
“I’m sure they were both commanding the ball,” Renteria said. “You have to call it as loud and constantly as you possibly can, and they remember the priority guy. And one has to deviate. It kind of looked like Eloy was going behind him, but obviously they made contact.”
The Sox committed three errors in their fifth consecutive defeat coming out of the All-Star break. Cease, third baseman Yoan Moncada and shortstop Leury Garcia made errors in the first three innings.
Cease, the Sox’ prized pitching prospect who came along with Jimenez in the Jose Quintana trade two years ago, allowed six runs and eight hits while getting woefully poor defensive help in his second start in the majors.
“That was an ugly one, no other way to describe it,” Renteria said. “The guys know better than that. We’ve played better than that. Today was not very good.
“There’s no way to sugarcoat it.”
Cease, witness to the avalanche of errors, a misread by Tilson on Cam Gallagher’s double that sailed over his head and — one batter later in the fourth — a poor decision by right fielder Ryan Cordell to dive for an uncatchable liner hit by Merrifield near the line resulting in an inside-the-park homer, hunkered down and got through six innings with 108 pitches (67 strikes).
Four of the runs were earned against the 23-year-old, who walked one, struck out seven and saved his best for last: After Merrifield’s homer, Cease retired the last eight batters he faced, striking out four of the last six.
“For the most part, I actually felt pretty good,” Cease said. “One walk is huge. I felt like I had a better feel than I’ve had most of the year, actually.”
Meanwhile, the Sox’ offense was nonexistent for the fifth consecutive game of the trip. A night after right-hander Jakob Junis (5.08 ERA) struck out a career-high 10 in the Sox’ 5-2 loss, righty Glenn Sparkman (3-5, 4.54 ERA) pitched a five-hit shutout with a career-high eight strikeouts.
The Sox have scored one, two, two, two and zero runs on the trip.
