By Morris Phillips

In what amounts to half a season, the A’s have gone from having baseball’s best record to the team with the worst.

The A’s struggles continued on Sunday in a 7-3 loss to the White Sox, Oakland’s 11^th loss in their last 12 games.  Already occupying the cellar in the AL West, the A’s fell behind the National League’s Brewers and now hold the worst record in the majors at 13-26.

As recently as August 15, 122 games into the 2014 season the A’s held the best record in baseball despite having just a slim, one-game lead on the eventual AL West champion Angels.  Oakland won just 15 of its final 40 regular-season games last season, just enough to qualify as the fifth-seed in the AL playoffs.  They then lost the one-game AL Wild Card playoff to the Royals in Kansas City.

And this season, with all the shocking changes and personnel departures, the A’s can’t seem to win a close game, or compete during the daytime.  And did we mention the defensive shortcomings?  For manager Bob Melvin, after the A’s committed four more errors to fall to 1-12 in day games, it feels like a nightmare, one which, of course, feels all too real.

“Guys are thinking about it out there,” Melvin said of Oakland’s big-league leading 42 errors.  “They don’t want to make an error and they end up doing it.  We’re not playing clean games at this point.  They’re ugly games and it affects how you play them.”

The A’s got another early jolt of offense—Saturday from Billy Butler with a two-run homer and Sunday from Max Muncy with his first major league home run—only to squander the lead soon after.  After Muncy’s shot, the A’s lead 2-1 in the fourth only to see the White Sox tally four times in the top of the fifth to lead 5-2.  As usual, an error figured prominently in the opponent’s rally.

Marcus Semien’s boot of Adam Eaton’s ground ball to open the fifth put the pressure on Scott Kazmir, who was laboring at that point, well off his usually stellar game.  Kazmir didn’t fare well, allowing four hits and a walk in the inning before he was lifted with all four runs in, two baserunners on and only one out.

Semien would go on to commit a second error in the eighth, an errant throw to first.  The rookie shortstop has 13 errors already.  Stephen Vogt and Kazmir also committed errors earlier in the game.

The White Sox swept a series in Oakland for the first time since 1998.  They’ve won six straight and are at .500 first the first time in 2015.  The A’s lost their fourth straight and find themselves 12 ½ games behind first place Houston, where they visit for three games starting on Tuesday.

The A’s promoted Craig Gentry to replace injured Ike Davis, who has a hamstring issue that severely hampered his ability to run the bases.  Muncy and Mark Canha figure to split the playing time created by Davis’ injury at first base.

Seemingly the most important guy in the A’s universe, Sean Doolittle made a second, rehab appearance at Single A Stockton and did not pitch well.  But more importantly, he felt healthy and the A’s will likely promote the 2014 All-Star once he shows he can pitch on back-to-back days.

Once Doolittle returns, the rest of the A’s bullpen should fall back into some pattern or regularity.  On Sunday, replacement closer Tyler Clippard got game action in the ninth inning—his first appearance since Wednesday—only to allow a two-run homer to Avasail Garcia.

Giving the proceedings an air of what could have been, Jeff Samardzija pitched into the eighth inning to pick up the win.   Afterwards, he seemed genuinely concerned for his former teammates in recounting how competitive the team was during his stint in Oakland that lasted just 16 starts.

The A’s turn to Drew Pomeranz on Tuesday to stop the losing streak.  But Pomeranz has never beaten the Astros in four starts and one relief appearance.  The Astros have Roberto Hernandez slated as their starter.