The Chicago White Sox emphatically broke their franchise record for longest losing streak on Thursday with their most lopsided loss of an already miserable season.
Chicago didn’t just lose 14-2 to the Boston Red Sox. It allowed Boston starter Tanner Houck to take a no-hitter in the sixth inning in front of a home crowd that likely came into the game with low expectations and still found a way to be let down.
White Sox third baseman Lenyn Sosa finally broke off Houck’s bid with a leadoff single in the sixth and even managed to score on a Zach DeLoach double, but the Red Sox responded by continuing to hammer Chicago’s pitching staff with a Jamie Westbrook homer and an RBI single by Ceddanne Rafaela.
White Sox starting pitcher Zach Woodford ultimately took the loss by allowing 10 hits, three walks and seven earned runs in four innings, raising his ERA to 10.80.
Chicago’s record now stands at an absurdly bad 15-48. That’s the worst mark in the MLB, well behind the second-worst Miami Marlins at 21-41. Previously, the franchise record for longest losing streak was a record 13 gamers in August 1924, but this team has found a way to surpass that age-old woe.
The 2024 losing streak also has no shortage of lows. There was a loss due to interference with the internal flight rules. There was Tommy Pham proclaiming how strong he is after being thrown out by multiple steps at home plate. There were consecutive comeback losses to the rival Chicago Cubs, the last coming via a walk-off homer.
The White Sox are the worst team in the MLB. They are also the worst pitching team
This is a team that went 61-101 last year and appears to have gotten worse by every conceivable measure after trading away top starting pitcher Dylan Cease and adding just a couple of decent players in Pham and Erick Fedde.
The .238 winning percentage that the White Sox now have is on pace for the second-worst record in the modern MLB era (since 1900), behind only the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (.235). One more loss and they drop to .234, good (euphemistically) for the worst ever.
Chicago ranks last in the MLB in runs scored, with 186, more than 40 points worse than the second-worst Marlins (227). It ranks second to last in runs allowed, with 338. The only team worse is the Colorado Rockies with 348. When looking at stats that adjust for the park factor and the Rockies’ home base, Coors Field , like ERA-, the White Sox are by far the worst.
And we haven’t even seen the shape of this team yet after trading away producers like Luis Robert Jr., Garret Crochet, Fedde and Pham, something Chicago is reportedly interested in.
