ST. PETERSBURG -- This spring, Aaron Civale made it clear his top priority was to pitch deeper into games in his first full season with the Rays. He followed through on that goal in his first four outings of 2024, and Tampa Bay won three of those games.

But lately, Civale has developed a perplexing fifth-inning problem.

Civale couldn’t get through five innings for the fourth consecutive start in the Rays’ 4-1 loss to the White Sox on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field. The defeat snapped Tampa Bay’s five-game winning streak in its new City Connect uniforms and dropped the club back to .500, at 19-19, heading into an off-day prior to a stretch of 13 consecutive games against American League East competition.

There were some signs of progress for Civale, as he breezed through three innings and only permitted two total runs after giving up 18 over his previous three outings. Manager Kevin Cash turned to the bullpen with two outs in the fifth, even though Civale had only thrown 82 pitches, to keep the game as close as possible, as the Rays’ lineup struggled with White Sox starter Chris Flexen.

Still, Civale would like to put himself in position to pitch through and beyond the fifth inning.

“I've talked about this since Day 1 of being here. My goal is to throw as many things as possible for both myself and for the bullpen, and that's what a starter is supposed to do,” he said. “Obviously, that side of things is frustrating. I want to pitch deeper into games, but today was definitely a step in the right direction.”

It’s only been eight starts, but there is a clear divide in Civale’s season to this point.

In his first four outings, he worked a trio of quality starts and an efficient five-inning performance, as he put together a 2.74 ERA. He allowed five home runs in those 23 innings, but opponents were batting just .200 with 26 strikeouts and four walks against him.

Since then, Civale has recorded a 9.82 ERA. His opponents’ batting average on the season has climbed to .265. He’s recorded 17 strikeouts compared to eight walks over his last 18 1/3 innings. And most notably, he’s not reached the five-inning mark four times in a row, matching the longest such streak of his career.

Cash chalked some of Civale’s recent issues up to bad luck, calling it “probably more coincidence than anything.” He said the Rays won’t dwell on his recent trouble in the fifth as long as the quality of his stuff remains consistent from inning to inning.

“Obviously, I want to pitch through the fifth and further into the game,” Civale said. “At the end of the day, just got to go out there and make more pitches.”

Civale cruised through his first three innings on Wednesday, throwing only 33 pitches as he faced the minimum nine hitters. The White Sox made him work harder in a 23-pitch fourth, but he worked around a one-out walk and a two-out single. Then came the fifth.

With the Rays ahead, 1-0, Bryan Ramos led off the inning by swatting a 2-2 curveball to left for a double. Paul DeJong promptly pulled Chicago ahead by going deep on an 0-1 cutter that Civale said “backed up” on him.

Civale retired the next two batters but gave up a single to Tommy Pham and walked Gavin Sheets, then Cash came out to take the ball after Civale’s 26th pitch of the inning. Reliever Kevin Kelly limited the damage the rest of the inning despite permitting a single to the first batter he faced, as he struck out Eloy Jiménez on three pitches, but then he allowed two runs on four hits in the sixth.

“You're talking about [Civale] giving two runs up. We're going to take that,” Cash said. “I'd like to see him get through the inning. But that was kind of more my decision, and he had pitches left. Just wanted to try to do everything we could to keep the game right where it was.”

The Rays lineup didn’t do Civale any favors, either, as they were once again baffled by Flexen. After pitching five-plus scoreless innings against the Rays on April 26 at Guaranteed Rate Field, the right-hander held them to one run on three hits (all in the fourth inning) while striking out eight over six innings to dash Tampa Bay’s hopes of a second straight sweep and a claim of the season series.

"We had been hitting pretty well the last few days, but I think he made the adjustment,” said Isaac Paredes, who hit an RBI double in the fourth, through interpreter Manny Navarro. “He made some good pitches, and we weren't able to make those adjustments. … He had a little bit more life on his fastball today."