The White Sox had what appeared to be comfortable leads Tuesday and Wednesday in the City Series against the Cubs.
Both advantages disappeared, and the Sox continued their spiral with crushing defeats.
In the process they tied a single-season franchise record with their 13th consecutive loss. They reached that dubious distinction Wednesday, falling 7-6 in front of 40,073 at Wrigley Field.
“They are all tough (losses), but obviously this is a rivalry,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “And to take a 5-0 lead (Tuesday) and a 5-1 lead (Wednesday) and not be able to finish it is frustrating.
“But there’s no way in hell there’s blame to anybody here, especially when we are all giving the effort that this clubhouse is giving every single day to win baseball games.”
Sox starter Erick Fedde left with a 5-3 lead after five innings.
“Starters, we’ve got to go deeper and give our bullpen a breather, give those guys chances to feel fresh,” Fedde said.
Michael Soroka, working his second inning of relief, hit a batter and walked another to begin the seventh. Soroka was called for a balk — the team’s second of the game — to move both runners into scoring position. Soroka threw a wild pitch while walking Mike Tauchman, bringing home a run and moving the other runner to third.
The Cubs tied it on a one-out sacrifice fly to center from Cody Bellinger and went ahead 6-5 on a two-out RBI single from Ian Happ.
The Sox tied it in the eighth on a Paul DeJong solo home run. Tauchman provided the heroics for the Cubs in the bottom of the ninth, leading off with a game-ending homer off Michael Kopech.
Photos: Cubs beat White Sox 7-6 in Game 2 of the City Series at Wrigley Field
“It’s unfortunate, with the run that we are on — the skid if you want to call it that — these moments are put under a microscope,” Kopech said. “I think that the overall baseball being played lately has been a lot better.
“Unfortunately I’ve been in some positions where I’ve given away a couple of games where we played good games. It’s the job, though, and with the role that I’m in right now, you want to be the guy on the mound win or lose. Unfortunately tonight it was lose.”
The Sox also dropped the series opener 7-6.
They led 5-0 after four innings Tuesday, but the Cubs pulled even with four in the sixth. Luis Robert Jr. put the Sox back ahead with a mammoth solo homer in the seventh. But Happ got the big hit in the eighth for the Cubs, driving in two with a double against reliever Jordan Leasure.
“Stuff felt great,” Leasure said after Tuesday’s game. “Just falling behind hitters. That was the difference.”
The road woes continued for the Sox, who went 0-5 in their trips to Milwaukee (0-3) and Wrigley Field (0-2). They led at one point in each of the games. They are 5-26 on the road this season.
The overall woes continued as well. The 13-game losing streak matches the single-season franchise record established Aug. 9-26, 1924. They’ve lost 17 of 18, and at 15-47 are off to their worst 62-game start in history.
“It sucks,” Kopech said of the losing streak. “There’s no easy way to put it. It’s a difficult game that we play. When you know that you have a lot of talent and have a lot of guys who care and want to win and you don’t see it panning out for you, everybody kind of feels for each other night in and night out.
“I don’t want to put anything on one portion of the game, because there’s a lot of things that could be cleaned up. Unfortunately it’s just the position we are in right now where it seems like things aren’t meant to go our way. We have to keep our head down and keep doing what we know how to do and prepare for tomorrow and try to win tomorrow.”
