Things have gone from bad to downright embarrassing and unwatchable. A season filled with lows for the Chicago White Sox went right along the track on Monday night as they were defeated 5-1 by the Oakland Athletics for their 21st consecutive loss.
“Our whole plan coming into this series was to continue our focus, focus on the details of the game, play the game the way we know we’re capable of, and we did that tonight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.
The White Sox are now tied with the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for the longest losing streak in American League history. They are just two defeats shy of tying the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies’ for ultimate futility with a MLB-record streak of 23 straight losses.
“We talk about it every day,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said of the streak. “Everybody knows what it is. It’s 21 in a row. It sucks. It’s not fun. It’s painful. It hurts. You name it. However, you want to describe it. It’s not for lack of effort. Nobody wants to come out here and lose, so we’ve just got to put a good game together and put this behind us.”
The two teams did not exactly knock the cover off the baseball, only manufacturing four hits in the game, however, the A’s were able to take advantage of nine free passes by White Sox pitchers. White Sox starter Ky Bush, who played his college baseball just a half an hour drive from the Coliseum at St. Mary’s College, surrendered five walks in four innings.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter the White Sox knotted the score at one in the top of the fourth, the Athletics took the lead in the bottom half of the inning thanks to Max Schuemann’s two-run single.
“You just try to turn the page,” outfielder Corey Julks said. “Look forward to the next day, bounce back, don’t dwell on the loss, just try to learn from them and get better each day. … We’re just trying to rally as a team and find a way to get a win.”
The White Sox’s losing streak dates back to July 10 in the second game of a twin bill against their division rival Minnesota Twins. They were playing at a dismal 47-win clip at that point with a 27-67 record.
A 47-win pace would have been a disaster and would have caused heads to roll, but it would not have been the worst mark in the modern era dating way back to 1901. The 2018 Baltimore Orioles and 2019 Detroit Tigers both won 47 games, to note two recent examples.
In the doldrums of this 21-game losing streak, the White Sox (27-88) are winning at a 25.7 percent clip in 2024. If they can stay at that level, it would tie the 1919 Philadelphia Athletics (36-104) for the fifth-worst winning percentage in a season since 1901.
Since MLB expanded to a 162-game regular season over six decades ago in 1961, the record for most losses in a season belongs to the 1962 New York Mets (42-120).
The White Sox will look to end their losing streak on Tuesday when they square off against the Athletics in Game 2 of their three-game set in Oakland. Chicago will send Jonathan Cannon (1-5, 4.11 ERA in 70 IP) to the mound against Ross Stripling (2-10, 5.65 ERA in 67.0 IP).
