ANAHEIM, Calif. — Nicky Lopez singled sharply to center with two outs in the eighth inning Tuesday. Dominic Fletcher, who had singled earlier in the inning, moved to second base on Lopez’s hit to give the Chicago White Sox one of their best scoring opportunities of the evening.
Los Angeles Angels reliever Hunter Strickland then struck out Luis Robert Jr., ending the threat.
The team’s three-game winning streak came to an end one inning later, as the Sox fell 5-0 in front of 36,254 at Angel Stadium.
“We just really didn’t get any momentum going,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “We had some chances, had some decent at-bats, but just couldn’t put multiple ones together and string anything to create some offense.
“Just one of those days.”
It’s the 116th loss for the Sox, who are four shy of tying the 1962 New York Mets (40-120) for the most defeats in a season during Major League Baseball’s modern era.
At 36-116, the Sox need to go 7-3 in their final 10 games to avoid matching the loss total of the ’62 Mets.
The 116 losses are the fourth-most in a season in modern-day MLB history. Only the ’62 Mets, 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119) and 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (36-117) suffered more defeats.
Tuesday marked the 19th time the Sox have been shut out this season. Angels starter Griffin Canning and three relievers limited the Sox to six hits — including two each by Lopez and Fletcher.
“Sometimes you’ve got to give credit to the guy they threw out there,” Fletcher said of Canning. “He threw well, did a good job of mixing it up.
“His changeup was pretty good, located his fastball and mixed some sliders and curveballs.”
Davis Martin pitched well for the Sox in the loss, allowing three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and two walks in five innings.
“I thought I executed pretty well today, battled,” Martin said. “There were a lot of good (at-bats) they put together. Forced me to get in the zone, especially with the offspeed (pitches). Ball just didn’t roll my way with six singles today (and) the (RBI) double (in the fifth) being the last one. All in all, loved the stuff, just didn’t love the results.”
Two of the three runs Martin allowed came with two outs.
Taylor Ward’s two-out single in the third inning brought home Charles Leblanc with the game’s first run.
Gustavo Campero scored on a two-out double by Nolan Schanuel in the fifth to make it 3-0.
“The two lead-off walks (in the third and fourth, leading to runs) are going to eat me up tonight,” Martin said. “All the rest of the (at-bats), I felt we did a good job of competing in the zone and attacking.”
Eric Wagaman homered against reliever Enyel De Los Santos in the sixth, his second RBI of the game following a one-out, run-scoring single in the fourth against Martin.
Sox pitcher Jake Eder allowed one run on two hits with one strikeout and one walk in two relief innings during his major-league debut.
The Angels made the most of their offensive opportunities while the Sox couldn’t get much going at the plate, placing just two runners in scoring position.
“I thought (Canning) pitched pretty well, he was throwing his changeup and slider pretty well,” Sizemore said. “Just keeping us off the heater just enough with those other pitches. Just couldn’t string anything together.
“I thought (Martin) threw well. He didn’t have his best stuff, some walks came around to hurt him. But overall, he competed. They had a good plan against his changeup, they were getting good swings off that. They were ready for it. But it really didn’t matter. We just weren’t able to get any offense for him.”
