There are all sorts of stats that sum up the 2024 White Sox's incredible, soul-shattering ineptitude, but tonight they produced two more that top the list.
By dropping their 15th consecutive game, they set a record for the longest losing streak in the 124-year history of the White Sox franchise ... for the second time this season.
And with the way they lost it, the White Sox now have as many blown saves as they do victories: 27 apiece.
I'd say this game was among the most painful, but you should have lost the capacity for feeling long ago. They gave up three homers in the eighth inning, including a go-ahead grand slam to Bobby Witt Jr.
Witt had another massive game, going 4-for-5 and coming up a triple short of the cycle. He also followed up the slam with two excellent ranging plays to the hole in the ninth, adding insult to injury. But the essence of this loss has little to do with him, and everything to do with the extremely dopey way they allowed him to come to the plate with the bases loaded.
First, Steven Wilson gave up back-to-back homers to Hunter Renfroe and MJ Melendez, which made it a one-run game. He got Freddy Fermin to pop out, but Maikel Garcia kept the inning alive with a single, and Pedro Grifol went to John Brebbia.
Brebbia faced Adam Frazier, and he shouldn't have even had to retire him, because Garcia glitched trying to steal second base, leaving late and hesitating on his way to second as well. But the stutter-stepping confused Chuckie Robinson, whose throw to second came just as Garcia started retreating to first, and Nicky Lopez's return throw had no chance.
That kept the inning alive, and then Brebbia exacerbated the issue by plunking Frazier on a full count and walking Michael Massey. That loaded the bases for Witt, and even though he started Witt with a not-terrible slider at the bottom of the zone, Witt anticipated the pitch, and its break wasn't sharp enough. Ballgame.
That's how the White Sox fell to 27-82 to cap off an acrimonious day featuring an underwhelming return for their most tradeable player and Chris Getz sounding wounded by the maneuverings of Garrett Crochet's representation.
Had the White Sox lost 8-1, it would've just been a Monday. But they actually scored more than three runs for the first time in three weeks while Chris Flexen threw a quality start, so everything should've been lined up in their favor.
The White Sox scored their first two runs of the game after second-batter double plays cleared the bases. In the first, Luis Robert Jr. singled with two outs, stole second and scored on a Gavin Sheets single. In the fifth, Nicky Lopez got nicked by an Alec Marsh pitch, moved to second on an Andrew Vaughn walk, then scored on Robert's single to right field, tying the game at 2.
They cut straight to the chase in the sixth when Eloy Jiménez and Andrew Benintendi opened the inning with doubles, and Paul DeJong's single scored Benintendi to make it a 4-2 game. Vaughn then hit a no-doubt solo shot to make it a 5-2 game in the seventh, but that only made the collapse more brutal.
There were signs of a classic White Sox foundering. The Royals tied the game in the third because Robinson rushed a throw to first on Salvador Perez's swinging bunt, and Flexen didn't help by sliding into him. In the fourth, Maikel doubled with two outs, then advanced to third when Andrew Benintendi's throw skipped past Brooks Baldwin. He would've scored regardless when Kyle Isbel dropped a flare into right field, but it added to the ugliness of the evening, signaled the fundamental instability of the product.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox are now 2-19 in Flexen's 21 starts, and they've lost the last 15.
*Brebbia is now 0-6 in relief, which doesn't help a day before the trade deadline.
