The Chicago White Sox are enduring yet another miserable season, and now the frustration seems to be spilling over into the locker room as well.
After the Sox got thumped by the Cleveland Indians 12-0 on Wednesday, righty Reynaldo Lopez, who started and took the loss, vented to reporters.
“It’s unacceptable for us to look the way we looked today,” said Lopez, per MLB.com’s Scott Merkin. “Nobody is happy about the way we looked today. Honestly, we looked like clowns there, starting with me. But I know we can do better. It’s a matter of us to keep grinding, improving and working hard.”
The 24-year-old’s remarks were sharp, and they apparently did not sit too well with some his teammates. On Friday, Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times revealed the reactions of multiple White Sox players who sounded unhappy about Lopez’s comments.
“If I have something to say, sometimes you have to [say it] in your clubhouse,” third baseman Yolmer Sanchez was quoted as saying. “I don’t like to say a lot of things about us to the media.”
“If I have to vent about something negative or any kind of comment that I think is not right, I’d rather go home and talk to my wife,” said shortstop Tim Anderson before taking on a bit more of a conciliatory tone. “But guys are different. They vent in different ways. I understand where the frustration comes from with him. I’m still going to stick behind him 100 percent.”
“You never really want to describe it that way, but I definitely understand Lopey’s frustrations,” veteran pitcher James Shields added. “But, at the end of the day, we are a team and we’ve got to stick together and we’ve got to play the game the right way. We’ve got to pick our game up.”
One exception however was first baseman Jose Abreu, who even seemed to applaud Lopez for his criticisms.
“I respect his comments,” the slugger said through an interpreter. “We are not playing the way that we can play. We can’t lose focus on the things that we can manage and how we need to approach the game, how we need to work to get the job done on the field. I really respect his comments.”
While the Sox managed to snap an eight-game losing streak with an 6-4 win over the Oakland A’s on Friday, they still sit an ugly 25-50 on the year (third-worst in the league). Lopez’s comments may not have been the most popular, but even their fans seem to agree that the team’s play is far below par.
