WASHINGTON — The Chicago White Sox were aiming for their first series win since early August.

Instead, they made two errors and gave up a grand slam in the first three innings Wednesday against the Washington Nationals.

The Sox dropped the series finale, 13-3, in front of 23,275 at Nationals Park. Lane Thomas hit the grand slam in the third inning against Jesse Scholtens, giving the Nationals an 8-1 lead.

“We made a couple errors that were costly,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “Other than that, we didn’t pitch very well and we didn’t hit.”

The Sox surrendered three home runs, walked seven and hit two batters on Wednesday. They lost two of three in the series and are a season-worst 37 games under .500 at 58-95. Their last series victory was Aug. 7-9, when they won two of three against the New York Yankees at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Here are three takeaways from Nationals Park.

1. Michael Kopech worked on his slider as an opener.

Michael Kopech got the groundball he needed.

With a runner on third base and one out in the first inning on Wednesday, Joey Meneses hit a grounder to third. Yoán Moncada threw home and caught CJ Abrams in a rundown. But shortstop Tim Anderson couldn’t handle catcher Carlos Pérez’s throw back to third cleanly and Abrams scored on the error.

Kopech bounced back with a strikeout and flyout to wrap up his one inning as the opener.

...continued

©2023 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.