You know what’s worse than losing a lead in multiple races against your cross-town rival and losing your 12th game in a row? Doing exactly the same thing for his 13th consecutive defeat.
In consecutive games, the Chicago White Sox saw a 5-1 lead turn into a 7-6 loss against 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 designated hitter Mike Tauchman who hit the first home run of his career.
The White Sox took a 5-1 lead Wednesday through a four-run, six-single rally in the fourth inning. The Cubs began to chip away, first with a Cody Bellinger double play and a run-scoring snag in the fifth, then another rally in the seventh inning to take a 6-5 lead.
White Sox shortstop Paul DeJong tied it in the eighth with a solo home run, but that only opened them up to heartbreak in the ninth.
The White Sox are really bad and could get even worse
With 13 consecutive losses, the White Sox saw their record fall to the worst in the MLB, 15-47 (next worst: the Miami Marlins at 21-41) and tied the franchise record with 13 consecutive losses. Chicago’s last losing streak was 13 players in August 1924.
So, it has literally been almost 100 years since the White Sox lost this many games in a row.
This was not an uneventful losing streak either. In addition to two comeback losses to the Cubs, the White Sox somehow managed to lose a game due to interference with infield flight rules (an umpire decision reportedly reprimanded by MLB) and lose in a manner that resulted in outfielder Tommy Pham proclaiming that he can beat people after the game.
Expectations were low in Chicago this season after going 61-101, adding just a few key players like Pham and Erick Fedde and trading starting pitcher Dylan Cease. They still fell far short of what even their most cynical fans might have expected. Their current .242 winning percentage puts them on track for the second-worst record in the modern MLB era (since 1900), behind only the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics.
And his struggles can’t even be partially attributed to bad luck. Their minus-140 run differential is by far the worst in the league, with a Pythagorean record of 16-46. So they are exactly one win worse than they should be, judging by the runs they are scoring and allowing. The team’s .610 OPS is the worst in MLB. Their 4.90 ERA is the second-worst in MLB, behind only the Coors Field-affected Colorado Rockies.
Even by current MLB standards, with lots of tanks, this team is a sight to behold and could get even worse. The remaining key players Luis Robert Jr., Garret Crochet and Fedde are all supposedly available for negotiation.
