White Sox shut out again by Blue Jays, lose seventh straight game and fall to 7-18

TORONTO — The skids hit seven and 24, respectively, for the White Sox.

Seven straight losses after the Blue Jays’ second straight 8-0 victory completing a three-game series sweep and an 0-6 road trip that began against the Tampa Bay Rays, and 24 straight innings without a run for an offense that entered with a .187/.250/.312 hitting line over the last 15 games.

The loss was the Sox’ 12th in the last 14 games and 15th in the last 19. Their 7-18 start is the franchise’s worst since 1986. They’ve had four hits in each of the last two games and finished with 11 hits, 10 of them singles, in their three games in Toronto.

Sox batters struck out 17 times Wednesday.

Michael Kopech (0-3, 7.01 ERA) worked five innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits and two walks. He threw 90 pitches, got 11 swinging strikes and struck out five. The Jays got him after two outs in the third, starting a three-run rally on Santiago Espinal’s two-out single. Bo Bichett’s single and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s double plated three three runs.

Bichette homered against Jimmy Lambert in the seventh, and Whit Merrifield singled in two runs.

All the Jays needed, though, was a single run against a Sox team that hasn’t scored since Andrew Vaughn doubled home two runs in the third inning of Monday’s series opener, a 5-2 loss. The Sox also lost 7-0 on Tuesday.

The Sox set another futile offensive tone in the first when lefty Yusei Kikuchi (4-0, 3.00) struck out Elvis Andrus and Andrew Vaughn to open the game. Luis Robert Jr., in a horrendous 3-for-44 slump going in, roped a Kikuchi pitch off the right field wall but was tagged out at second when he overslid the base going for a double, ending the inning.

Grandal’s back

After exiting Tuesday’s 7-0 loss with a back spasm, catcher Yasmani Grandal was available off the bench Wednesday, Grifol said.