Can the Chicago White Sox save their season in May?

The Chicago White Sox had one of the worst April’s in franchise history.

A 10-game losing streak while failing to win two games in a row or a series during the season’s opening month has put the Sox in a deep hole.

Thankfully, there are still five months left of the season. We still have 82% of the season left. 82 ironically is the number of victories the White Sox need to obtain just to get to 90 wins on the season.

That might be more than enough to win the AL Central where only the Minnesota Twins are above .500.

The Sox terrible play in April might be a forecast of a bad season on the horizon.

The Chicago White Sox pitching was awful. The bullpen could not hold leads. The starters put the team in too many early holes.

During the team’s 10-game skid, the Toronto Blue Jays outscored the Sox 20-2. The Tampa Bay Rays rallied four times to beat the Southsiders.

Lance Lynn had a no-hitter going through six innings last Saturday. The Rays ended up scoring 10 runs in the seventh and cruised to an easy victory.

The Oakland A’s are the only team that has a pitching staff worse than the Sox. The A’s were purposely built to be terrible as the team is trying to move to Las Vegas. The White Sox are trying to contend for a division title.

Injuries wreaked havoc on the offense. Yoan Moncada is on the injured list with a back issue. Eloy Jimenez and Tim Anderson also spent time on the IL.

Then there was the weird issue with Luis Robert Jr. being benched on Saturday night for not hustling down to first base after hitting a ground ball. It turned out Robert Jr. tried to play with a tight hamstring and did not communicate it to manager Pedro Grifol or the training staff.

Anderson is set to return tomorrow night and his presence is a major boost to the batting order. The Sox went 3-15 while he was out of the lineup (the Sox did win the game that Anderson was hurt in). Anderson missed a lot of time last season and the Chicago White Sox went 39-44.

Having Tim Anderson back is not going to solve all the Chicago White Sox problems.

The offense is struggling to consistently score runs. The White Sox have scored five or more runs in a game just nine times this season. They are the league’s bottom five in OPS and OBP.

They have way too many free-swinging hitters.

The Chicago White Sox lineup currently has an 87 wRC+ on the season. Compare that to the Rays’ 148 or the Blue Jays’ 109, and it is no wonder why the Southsiders suffered an early-season, double-digit losing streak.

Making matters worse, the Sox lineup is currently a -16.3 fWAR.

There is still time for the bats to get going. Jimenez tends to pick up his game as the season goes on and he has a bat that can carry a team.

Even if the offense gets humming, the pitching is concerning.

The pitching staff has struggled to throw strikes as they are second to last in the league in WHIP. Only four pitchers have an ERA below 4.00.

The starters ERAs all above 4.00 with Lance Lynn and Michael Kopech owning ERAs over 7.00.

Unless there is some unexpected trade, the Sox are going must use what they have to turn things around. It is going to be hard with a poorly constructed roster.

The schedule does lighten up a bit.

The Chicago White Sox play only two series this month against teams with winning records (the Twins and the Houston Astros). They play 11 games against the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers.

The Sox might be more talented than those two division rivals, but unless the pitching gets better rapidly there is no guarantee they win those games.

Since it is May, there is still some hope the Sox can keep their season from being a complete train wreck even if it looks like it has come off the rails.