You know what’s worse than blowing a multiple-run lead against your crosstown rival and losing your 12th straight game? Doing the exact same thing for your 13th loss in a row.
In consecutive games, the Chicago White Sox saw a 5-1 lead turn into a 7-6 loss to the Chicago Cubs. On Tuesday, it was an eighth-inning rally capped by an Ian Happ RBI double that sank the South Siders.
On Wednesday, it was Cubs restricted hitter Mike Tauchman who delivered the first walk-off homer of his career.
The White Sox took a 5-1 lead on Wednesday with a four-run rally, with six hits, in the fourth inning. The Cubs then continued to chip in, first with a run-scoring double play by Cody Bellinger and a run-scoring balk in the fifth, before rallying again in the seventh inning to take a 6–5 lead.
White Sox shortstop Paul DeJong tied the score in the eighth with a solo homer, but that didn’t cause heartbreak until the ninth.
The White Sox are really bad, and they could get worse
With 13 straight losses, the White Sox saw their record drop to an MLB-worst 15-47 (second worst: the Miami Marlins at 21-41) and tied a franchise record with 13 straight losses. Chicago’s last losing streak that long was a 13-gamer in August 1924.
So it has literally been 100 years since the White Sox have lost that many games in a row.
This wasn’t a boring losing streak either. In addition to two comeback losses to the Cubs, the White Sox have somehow managed to lose a game via infield fly rule interference (an umpire ruling reportedly reprimanded by the MLB) and losing on a manner that led to outfield Tommy Pham proclaiming that he can beat people up after the game.
Expectations were low in Chicago this season after a 61-101 win that added only a few key players like Pham and Erick Fedde and traded away top starting pitcher Dylan Cease. They still have a good idea of ​​what even their more cynical fans expected. Their current winning percentage of .242 puts them on pace for the second-worst record in the modern MLB era (since 1900), behind only the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics.
It’s not even like their struggles could be partially due to bad luck. Their points differential of minus 140 is by far the worst in the league, with a Pythagorean record of 16-46. So they are exactly one win worse than where they should be, judging by the runs they score and allow. Their .610 team OPS is the worst in MLB. Their ERA of 4.90 is the second-worst in the MLB, behind only the Coors Field-hit Colorado Rockies.
Even by the tank-heavy current standards of the MLB, this team is a sight to behold, and it could get worse. Top remaining players Luis Robert Jr., Garret Crochet and Fedde are all reportedly available for a trade.
