BOSTON — Nothing is going right for the White Sox against the Red Sox, on the mound, in the field and at the plate.
Sean Burke struggled in the ballpark of his youth, Sam Antonacci made two costly mistakes and the White Sox couldn’t dent Sonny Gray in a 4-0 loss to the Red Sox on Wednesday. The White Sox have lost all five games against the Red Sox this season by a combined score of 33-4.
Burke left after 4 ⅓ innings, allowing two runs, five hits and two walks. The Sutton, Massachusetts, native grew up going to Fenway Park and had supporters in attendance.
“That adds to the frustration,” Burke said. “It’s one of the few times a bunch of my friends and family, people I grew up with, can come watch me. Not to have my best stuff tonight sucks.
’’From the get-go, the breaking balls weren’t really there. I was really just pitching off my four-seam, two-seam and cutter today, which makes it hard against a lineup like that.’’
Antonacci made it hard for himself. In the third, he tried to score from second on a grounder to third baseman Caleb Durbin, whose throw pulled Willson Contreras off first base. But Contreras had plenty of time to nab Antonacci at home.
’’Looking back at it, the whole play was right in front of Contreras,’’ Antonacci said. ’’The amount of years he’s been in the league, that’s an easy play for him. It’s a ball you got to stay put at third on, let Colson [Montgomery] hit us in.’’
In the seventh, Antonacci misread a fly ball in medium left field and wasn’t in position to make a good throw to get Andruw Monasterio tagging from third.
’’Tough read on my end,’’ Antonacci said. ’’Had to jump at the very end and wasn’t able to get behind it. I think if I get behind that ball a little bit better, just the way it was hit off the bat, right away I thought it was a broken bat and he kind of flared it into left field. I was coming in right away and just came in a little too hard.’’
Of course, none of it mattered much because the White Sox couldn’t score. Gray allowed three hits and two walks in six innings while striking out eight, getting plenty of swing-and-miss on his sweeper.
‘‘Sonny Gray had really good stuff tonight, especially to lefties,’’ said White Sox manager Will Venable, who stacked the lineup with five lefties and two switch hitters. ‘‘You saw a lot of spin early [in counts] in the zone that we didn’t fire on. And then later in counts, [we chased] the spin below. He had a lot of different ways he was attacking us, and we just didn’t have any solutions.‘‘
The White Sox maintained a three-game lead over the Guardians and a four-game lead over the Twins, both of whom lost. At 59-54, the White Sox are the only team in the American League Central above .500.
NOTE: The White Sox designated outfielder Austin Hays for assignment. Hays, who signed a one-year, $6 million deal, had been on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Charlotte for a strained left calf and was hitting well, but White Sox manager Will Venable said he fell victim to a roster crunch.