CHICAGO — Manager Kevin Cash has become increasingly open and pointed over the last few days about the need for his Rays to start playing better, and soon.

That time would urgently seem to be now, as the Rays come off what they can only hope is the low point of their season, Sunday’s 4-2 loss completing a weekend sweep by the MLB-worst White Sox.

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Cash said. “The guys, look, they understand what’s going on and they’re frustrated by it. But at the end of the day, it’s going to be on us to turn it around.”

Going into play Friday, the Sox had been historically bad, winning only three of their first 25 games. But with the Rays wasting multiple scoring chances, making bad pitches at crucial times and erring in the field and on the bases, the Sox doubled that win total in three days and knocked the Rays to a season-low three games under .500 at 13-16.

“Obviously getting swept sucks by anybody,” starter Zack Littell said. “Getting swept by a team that hasn’t really played up to par yet is also frustrating.

“But ... you see maybe they’re coming out of it a little bit. You look at that lineup, it’s not a 6-22 lineup. Just as you look at our lineup, and you could say the same thing. So we’ve definitely left some games out there. Some winnable games. But I just don’t expect it to continue.”

The Rays’ best hope for a better future rests in their past, when the key players from their teams that won 99 and 86 games the past two seasons and made the playoffs, along with a couple others, are expected to return soon from injury.

“You look around the room, we’ve got guys that have a track record of being really good,” Littell said. “And I don’t think anybody here doubts we are really good.

“This is obviously a super tough stretch. But I can also say that nobody in here is happy with how they’re performing. And, if it’s anything, I think we can expect everybody to turn it around at some point. (It’s) just a matter of getting one or two guys going and then it can really snowball in here.”

But, Yandy Diaz, their most tenured active player, said that could take time, and that a key is for him and his mates to relax and not put pressure on themselves.

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