White Sox competitive in loss to Cubs, but they have to turn that into winning

It was a bad gaffe by White Sox shortstop Brooks Baldwin.

After Cubs third baseman Isaac Paredes hit a two-out double in the fifth inning Saturday, Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi fielded the ball after it hit the wall and threw it to Baldwin, the cutoff man.

Rather than immediately firing the ball to the plate — where he potentially could have thrown out Cubs baserunner Cody Bellinger — Baldwin looked toward second base. Instead of possibly ending the inning with an out at home, Baldwin just held the ball. Third-base coach Willie Harris’ aggressive send paid off, and the Cubs tied the score.

‘‘[Baldwin] was just caught off-guard,’’ Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore said. ‘‘I don’t think he expected the third-base coach to send him there. I think he was just thinking, you know, ‘First and third, maybe I’ve got a play on [Paredes] at second.’ ’’

Catcher Miguel Amaya later delivered a tiebreaking two-run double in the eighth inning against reliever Chad Kuhl in the Sox’ 3-1 loss. It was their 44th defeat after leading and 35th when scoring first.

The Sox’ bats didn’t perform, striking out 13 times and not applying much pressure after the fourth. But Baldwin’s miscue played a role in the Cubs taking the momentum.

‘‘I turned and looked at second, and by the time I looked back, [Bellinger] was almost to home plate,’’ Baldwin said. ‘‘I was kind of surprised when I saw it, but we talked about it. Next time, just get it in. Go to the lead base.’’

The Sox were leading until the fifth, despite starter Chris Flexen not performing his best. Flexen didn’t allow a run but yielded three hits and four walks in four innings. Afterward, Sizemore said Flexen came to him and told him he didn’t have his best stuff.

Flexen struggled to find the strike zone (40 strikes, 38 balls) and now has gone 17 starts without a victory, the longest streak by a Sox pitcher since Dan Wright (19) in 2003-04.

‘‘Every inning was tough for him, but he battled,’’ Sizemore said. ‘‘He made pitches. He’s falling behind, but he was still competing.’’

Expect more mistakes and fielding blunders during the final two months of the season as the Sox try to find games for their regular position players to rest and younger players to take their spots.

Fifteen is the magic number for the Sox for the rest of this season. They need 15 victories in their final 43 games to avoid tying the 1962 Mets (40-120) for the most losses in a season in MLB history. That isn’t impossible, but they’ve only won 28 of their first 119, so their odds aren’t good.

The Sox have played two competitive games since firing Pedro Grifol and promoting Sizemore. If they want to avoid breaking the Mets’ dubious record, they’ll need to turn that competitiveness into victories.

‘‘I thought the transition has been solid so far, played two very competitive ballgames,’’ Flexen said. ‘‘Crowd has been into it both nights. Tough losses, but strong, tough games.’’

Part of the story of the Sox’ season is the number of games they have blown. One reason they’re in conversation for the most losses in history is because they haven’t been able to capitalize on the games in which they had a chance to win. They lead the majors with 28 blown saves, six more than the Cubs, who are second with 22.

‘‘We had the opportunity, but we came up a little short,’’ Sizemore said.