Drew Thorpe was one out away from a scoreless first inning Friday against the Seattle Mariners.
The Chicago White Sox right-hander never made it out of the inning.
The Mariners scored eight runs in the first — including hitting three consecutive home runs — on the way to crushing the Sox 10-0 in front of 20,170 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“You can’t let it snowball like that,” Thorpe said. “One or two or three or four is fine. Just got to be able to get out of the first inning and try and give some length to save the bullpen. It’s frustrating.”
The Sox lost their 12th straight and were shut out for the 13th time this season.
Friday’s game was out of reach before the Sox took their first swings.
Thorpe surrendered a two-out, two-run single to Jason Vosler, an RBI double to Mitch Garver, a three-run home run to Josh Rojas and then solo home runs to Dylan Moore and Victor Robles.
Thorpe exited after the Robles homer. The rookie allowed eight runs on six hits with two walks and one strikeout in two-thirds of an inning — the shortest start of his brief career.
“He gave up five hits in a row on five fastballs,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “That’s basically not his game. His game is mixing it up, it’s using the fastball of course. But it’s mixing it up, using the changeup, pitching inside, throwing his breaking pitches. It’s using both sides of the plate.
“I’m sure when I review the game again tonight … I’m going to see some hittable pitches. When he’s really good, he’s mixing it up really well. It’s a back-and-forth type of game where he’s keeping hitters off-balanced. When he’s giving up five hits in a row on five fastballs, there was a little bit of a breakdown there in the game planning.”
It’s the first time the Sox allowed back-to-back-to-back home runs since July 23, 2017, at Kansas City. The Sox allowed a fourth homer later in the game, a two-run blast in the fourth by Jorge Polanco against Jared Shuster.
Thorpe entered the outing on a nice stretch of five consecutive starts in which he allowed two runs or fewer and three hits or fewer in six-plus innings.
“He’s a tough kid, he’s going to make adjustments,” Grifol said. “He’s a tough worker. (Pitching coach) Ethan (Katz) and (bullpen coach) Matt (Wise) are excellent at their jobs and what they do. This kid will be ready to pitch five days from now for sure.”
Thorpe showed that ability to bounce back earlier this season, following a start in which he allowed seven earned runs in 3 1/3 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks with six shutout innings his next outing against the Detroit Tigers.
“Just kind of forget about it,” Thorpe said of Friday’s outing. “It’s going to happen. Bad games are going to happen. It’s probably not going to be the last one of my career. Just move forward, get to work the next four, five days and on to the next.”
It was another tough night for the offense, which went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Tommy Pham had three of the seven Sox hits.
The Sox are two losses from matching their single-season franchise mark of 14 consecutive defeats, which occurred earlier this season.
At 27-79, they are 52 games under .500 for the first time since 1932 (49-102).
The Sox are the seventh team in major-league history to lose 79-plus times in the first 106 games of a season and the first since the 1962 Mets — who were also 27-79.
“Everyone here wants to win, and we’re trying to win,” Thorpe said. “It just hasn’t come on our side yet. Just get back to work and continue to do what we’re doing. The clubhouse is good, it’s a good group of guys. We’re just trying to pull for each other, and it’s not ending up on our side.”
