Since retiring a major eague-record 45 consecutive batters, Mark Buehrle has been far from perfect.
The White Sox ace’s problems grew deeper Friday night in a 6-2 loss to the Indians that increased their deficit to three games behind the Tigers in the American League Central.
At the same time, the Sox’s defensive malaise became more widespread as they committed three miscues to expand their league lead in errors to 87, including eight in their last three games.
The only achievement of distinction was the Sox (56-54) turned six ground-ball double plays to tie a league record. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Buehrle became the first pitcher to induce six such double plays since Kansas City’s Dick Drago did it May 6, 1972, at Baltimore.
But much of the traffic on the basepaths was allowed by Buehrle, who has given up 17 earned runs on 27 hits in 12 2/3 innings (12.08 ERA) since his record for consecutive batters retired ended with two outs in the sixth inning July 28 at Minnesota.
Catcher Kelly Shoppach had two home runs off Buehrle (11-5), who allowed 11 hits, one fewer than he surrendered Sunday in his last start against the Yankees.
The Sox entered Friday’s game tied with Seattle for the worst fielding percentage in the league (.979), then went out and backed up that dubious distinction.
After playing seven consecutive games at shortstop in place of injured Alexei Ramirez, Jayson Nix returned to his more familiar position at second base.
But Nix’s errant flip to Ramirez on a potential double-play grounder led to the Indians’ first run in the first inning.
Third baseman Gordon Beckham mishandled Trevor Crowe’s grounder in the second, and Nix dropped a foul pop in the seventh. Neither of those errors cost the Sox, but it supported Guillen’s pregame worries about the shoddy defense.
“Our defense is really bad,” Guillen said. “Our pitching suffers a lot because we don’t make the plays. I played infield, and I didn’t want the manager to be criticizing me when I was making errors. And I’m not criticizing our players for errors.
“But if we don’t get better on defense, our pitching staff is not that good. They are pretty good, but when you make error after error, you are going to wear out the pitching staff.”
Buehrle left after 7 2/3 innings and 115 pitches. He allowed a hit in every inning but the fifth.
Despite the return of Ramirez, the Sox failed to solve left-hander Jeremy Sowers, who had an 0-4 record and 6.75 ERA against them this season, until Scott Podsednik led off the eighth with a double and Beckham drew a walk.
The Sox loaded the bases, but relievers Chris Perez and Tony Sipp retired the next three batters.
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mgonzales@tribune.com
