CHICAGO — For a microcosm of the state of the Cleveland Guardians offense, look no further than the eighth inning Tuesday at Rate Field.

Rhys Hoskins, the cleanup hitter with a .662 OPS, drew a two-out walk with the Guardians trailing the Chicago White Sox 2-1. Up stepped Stuart Fairchild, whose bat has been social distancing from baseballs since he arrived in Cleveland. He pinch hit for Daniel Schneemann, who totes the league’s lowest OPS (.425) since May 1.

Hoskins ranks 448th in sprint speed, but the Guardians didn’t pinch run for him because their only options were Patrick Bailey, who ranks 440th, and Gabriel Arias, who didn’t bother to run to first with the bases loaded on a dropped third strike — his first of five strikeouts in the game — Monday. The lack of hustle earned Arias a talking-to from manager Stephen Vogt, who declined to delve into the specifics of the conversation but conveyed he was less than thrilled.

Fairchild watched a fastball sail through the heart of the zone for a third strike and the third out; he’s now 3-for-19 with 14 strikeouts (and, to his credit, seven walks). The Guardians went quietly into the night and secured a series loss in each stop along their three-city trip.

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This is life as José Ramírez, Chase DeLauter and Angel Martínez heal from a fractured hamate bone, a fractured rib and a fractured foot, respectively, though it’s imperative to point out that Cleveland’s lineup was slumping for weeks before the trio landed on the injured list. Vogt is left trying to find production in the rubble. It’s not going well.

“I think we’re playing the guys that we want to play,” he said, “and I think we’re matching up when we need to, or when we have to, but we have to trust all 13, like we are, and (we’re) figuring it out. But we’re just not getting anything going right now. And it’s tough.”

It’s so tough that Parker Messick is blossoming into a front-line starter, and yet one of the best efforts of his young career still wasn’t enough to prevent the White Sox from seizing first place in the AL Central. Messick tallied a career-high 10 strikeouts over 7 2/3 innings, working at a pace so up-tempo it required a mid-inning Gatorade just to watch him operate.

“When I control the pace,” Messick said, “I feel like I’m in control of the hitter and he’s on his heels. More defensive swings. What’s coming next? I don’t really have time to think. And then I’m just attacking with my best stuff.”

He once again flashed his boosted velocity, averaging 95 mph on his fastball (up from 93.8 mph this season). The heater induced a 53 percent whiff rate and topped out at 97.6 mph, a new career best, in the seventh inning.

“You can’t ask for much more than that,” Vogt said.

Messick ranks third in the American League with a 2.67 ERA and fifth with 101 strikeouts. He should be representing the Guardians at the All-Star Game in Philadelphia in three weeks and deserves to gain steam in the AL Rookie of the Year race.

But even after a performance like this, he was left leaning against the green-padded railing in the visitors dugout as fireworks exploded over the Chicago sky and White Sox players exchanged high-fives.

The Guardians are 2-6 since the fractured-bone plague spread throughout their lineup. They’re 5-12 since they conquered the New York Yankees on consecutive days in the Bronx at the start of the month.

The offense, though, has been a painful watch for more than a month now. There’s plenty of blame to dole out: to the players who aren’t delivering (the Guardians desperately miss the old Steven Kwan), to the manager who can’t seem to unearth the right formula (if there is one), to the front office for leaving the roster so vulnerable (DeLauter, for instance, was always going to be a significant injury risk) and, as always, to ownership for limiting the resources.

None of this is new. But with the AL Central in shambles, and the AL as a whole generally weak, with only two teams — the Yankees and Seattle Mariners — sporting a positive run differential, it feels like a wasted opportunity. The Guardians are demonstrating they can’t survive without three hitters who had produced OPS figures of .757, .745 and .719 this season (.720 is league average).

The Guardians ranked 28th in runs scored in 2025. They rank 28th again in 2026.

They ranked 29th in batting average and 29th in slugging percentage in 2025. They rank 28th in batting average and 29th in slugging percentage in 2026. (To be fair, they have jumped from 29th to 22nd in on-base percentage, thanks to a walk-happy May.)

At 41-39, the sky isn’t falling. It’s just caving in some.

The Guardians hope to get DeLauter back during their upcoming 10-game homestand. Cooper Ingle is sitting by his phone in Columbus, waiting for Vogt’s name to appear with an incoming call. The trade deadline is 40 days away. There are steps to take to remedy the situation.

The Guardians will be OK if this gruesome rut is short-lived, if innings like the eighth on Tuesday ultimately prove to be the exception to the rule.