White Sox Err Often in Defeat

The Chicago White Sox made history Wednesday night.

Chicago became the first team to lose a season series to the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but had to work to do it.

The White Sox committed five errors, two of them in Tampa Bay’s six-run eighth-inning rally that produced a 7-3 victory.

Fred McGriff homered to begin the eighth and tie the score, 2-2, and finished the club’s most productive inning of the season with an RBI single.

In between, the White Sox committed two errors to pave the way for five unearned runs off relievers Bob Howry (0-2) and Chad Bradford.

“It was a big win for us in the sense we had lost four straight,” said McGriff, who hit .349 with six homers in April before going into a slump that dropped his batting average to a season-low .250 on June 22.

Since then, he is hitting .327 and his homer off Howry was his second in three days.

“He’s had better swings since the all-star break, and he’s capable of getting on a roll and maintaining it for a long time,” Devil Ray Manager Larry Rothschild said. “That was a big home run, and then he got another big hit in the inning.”

It was the second consecutive night of embarrassing defense for the White Sox, who gave up a run that scored from second base on a mental lapse they were able to overcome during an 8-6 victory over Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.

“We had a lot of opportunities. When you’ve got a young bullpen and you put that type of pressure on them to hold one-run leads, it’s difficult,” Chicago Manager Jerry Manuel said.

“It’s difficult for you to not have a margin of error. We’re not giving them much room for error. Then when they do err, it becomes big.”

In addition to McGriff’s two RBIs in the eighth, Tampa Bay scored on Quinton McCracken’s two-run single, Bradford’s bases-loaded walk to Kevin Stocker and shortstop Mike Caruso’s throwing error.

Roberto Hernandez (2-4) pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief of Julio Santana to get the victory. He gave up one hit, Albert Belle’s 35th homer in the ninth.

Frank Thomas and Jeff Abbott also hit solo homers for Chicago.