CHICAGO — The Red Sox have treated losses like speed bumps this season, a minor annoyance on the way to something better.
That changed on Saturday.
The visitor’s clubhouse at Rate Field was quiet as the Chicago Public Library after the White Sox beat the Red Sox, 3-2, on a walkoff single by Brooks Baldwin.
Some players sat silently at their lockers. Others were in a hurry to get dressed and get somewhere else. Early in the season or not, consecutive losses against the tanking White Sox are a bad sign and it seemed everybody knew it.
A 2-0 lead after five innings disappeared in a flash after starting pitcher Richard Fitts walked off the mound with a shoulder injury.
A more resilient team would have found a way to win. The Red Sox responded by failing to score over the final four innings. Now they have lost five of six games.
What was a potent offense has vanished. The Red Sox have scored 11 runs in those six games and haven’t hit a home run.
They’re hitting .197 as a team in that stretch, .103 with runners in scoring position.
“We have to start hitting, we know that,” manager Alex Cora said.
The Sox built a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning as Ceddanne Rafaela tripled in a run then scored on a single by Romy Gonzalez.
Fitts took a two-hit shutout into the sixth inning. He then motioned to the dugout after a pitch to leadoff hitter Miguel Vargas and left the game.
“Something different than I have felt before,” Fitts said. “Felt like I wasn’t able to throw my best pitches . . . it’s close to the shoulder.”
Fitts will travel to Boston on Sunday and get an MRI to determine the extent of his injury. At best, he seems sure to miss at least a few starts.
The 25-year-old righthander has a 2.38 ERA in seven starts since being acquired from the Yankees before the 2024 season.
“You always get concerned,” Cora said. “He really wanted to keep going. My job is to take care of my players. Hopefully we stopped at the right time.”
Zack Kelly replaced Fitts and walked Vargas. He struck out Nick Maton but left a fastball over the plate that Luis Robert Jr. didn’t miss. It was his first homer of the season.
“Ultimately you’ve got to come in and do your job and this unfortunately didn’t happen,” Kelly said.
Righthander Mike Vasil, a Wellesley native, held the Sox down for two innings. He struck out Carlos Narváez to leave a runner stranded at second base in the sixth inning.
Rafaela singled and stole second to open the seventh inning. But Gonzalez grounded out before the White Sox intentionally walked Rafael Devers.
Alex Bregman then fouled out to right field before Rob Refsnyder struck out.
The bottom of the ninth was a quick strike for the White Sox.
Facing Aroldis Chapman, Robert drew a walk, stole second base, and scored on a one-out single by Baldwin. Chapman didn’t get a two-strike splitter down.
“It hurts, obviously,” Chapman said via a translator. “We’ve had some tough losses lately. This time I took the L.”
Chapman hadn’t allowed a run in six previous outings. But his propensity for ill-timed walks proved costly this time.
Devers, the longest-tenured Red Sox player, has seen the good times and bad.
“You can’t lose patience,” he said via a translator. “If we stick with it, things are going to go our way soon.”
How does a team start to hit in the clutch again?
“The pitchers are finding our weaknesses early and doing a good job,” Devers said. “But I know what our offense is capable of.
“There are a lot of young guys on this team and everyone wants to do their job. We’ve got to have more patience. We’re going to break out.”
Maybe they need to get out of town. The Red Sox are 6-9 at Rate Field since the start of the 2021 season.
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.