OAKLAND, Calif. — Another uncompetitive at-bat. Another hopeless comeback chance. Another loss added to a season full of them.
Nick Senzel’s hapless 0-2 cut during a three-pitch strikeout brought the official end to a 5-1 White Sox defeat. It was also the moment that sealed an American League record-tying 21st consecutive loss. For a team that has yet to come back from any deficit after the sixth inning this season, the moment had long felt inevitable.
It’s been 36 years since the Baltimore Orioles lost 21 consecutive games to begin the 1988 season. They no longer stand alone in the American League when it comes to an extended run of futility.
“We’re talking about it every day, everybody knows what it is,” said White Sox manager Pedro Grifol. “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.”
They might not want to lose, but there seems to be nothing the White Sox can do to stop it. And now, an even more dubious record now stares down the much maligned manager and his ballclub. A loss on Tuesday would set an AL record. Two more losses would tie the 1961 Phillies, who hold the modern record by losing 23 in a row. If the White Sox aren’t able to win a game in Oakland, they will have to beat their rival, the Cubs, in order to avoid baseball’s longest ever losing streak.
Starting pitcher Ky Bush was given the unenviable task of ending this stretch of futility in his MLB debut. But after just four batters — of which he walked three — the White Sox bullpen was already stirring. Bush finished with five walks over his four innings of work.
A day after Chicago’s offense came alive in an eventual 13-7 loss, the league’s worst hitting team once again couldn’t muster much of anything. Andrew Benintendi drove in the only run, one of four White Sox hits on the evening.
“You’re just trying to turn the page, look forward to the next day,” said Corey Julks, whose run-saving catch was one of Chicago’s lone highlights. “Don’t dwell on the losses. Try to learn from them and get better each day.”
Each day, however, has brought another loss. And the White Sox sit in a different realm from the rest of the league. They’re 15 games behind the Rockies, who boast the sport’s second-worst record. They sit 41 1/2 games back in the American League Central — setting up a possibility for division elimination in the coming days.
The loss came against the backdrop of a relatively barren ballpark in Oakland, home of an A’s team that lost 112 games last year and was expected to bring up the rear in the league again in 2024. Instead, it’s the White Sox who have long grabbed the mantle.
It’s not simply that they have lost 21 consecutive games. It’s that they’ve regularly been blown out in the process. The team has been outscored by 85 in that span, for an average deficit of more than four runs per game. Those aforementioned Orioles were also outscored by 85 during their streak.
That Orioles team, however, went on to go 54-107. To finish in that range, the White Sox (27-88) would need to go well above .500 the rest of the way.
It was just three years ago that the White Sox won their division by 13 games. They were a team full of young players in a season that felt like the start of a potential South Side dynasty.
Three years later, they are barrelling toward what could be the worst season of all time, with painful nights stacking up with seemingly no end in sight.
Cameras showed Grifol in the visitors dugout before the game’s final pitch, staring blankly at the field in front of him. It’s a familiar image for a manager and a team desperate for anything to celebrate. Instead, the final strike came. And with it, an infamous record.
“It’s not for lack of effort,” Grifol said.“Nobody wants to come out here and lose. We’ve just got to put a good game together and put this behind us.”
(Top photo of Andrew Vaughn running: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
