With apologies to Comrade Magary for infringing upon his franchise, we are riding the dead donkey that is the Chicago White Sox until they stop their current record-breaking and record-threatening losing streak.
Loss Number: 21, tying them with the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for the longest losing streak in American League history.
Next Milestone: 23, by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies.
Last Night: Our spectacularly flawed heroes lost in typically desultory fashion to the previously Soxian and now moderately interesting Oakland Athletics, 5-1. How typical was this? It is the 32nd game this year (out of 115) in which the White Sox have scored one run or fewer, the 52nd in which they have scored fewer than three and the 86th in which they have failed to score the average number of runs a MLB team scores per game (4.47). How desultory was it? They had four hits, only one of them for extra bases; Andrew Vaughn's fourth-inning double was remarkable enough that we feel compelled to note it here. This was the 27th time they have had four hits or fewer in a game. Their starting pitcher, major league debutante Ky Bush, was just promoted that morning and lasted four full innings before being replaced, having walked five A's and hitting a sixth. The whole game took two hours and 15 minutes.
Their Best Player: Luis Robert Jr. took an 0-for-4, and his slash line is currently .210/.278/.402. During the current losing streak he is 16-for-92 with two homers and seven RBI.
The Highlight, Such As It Is: Oakland's Zach Gelof, known mostly for his power hitting, scored from third on a strikeout that became a 2-3 putout in the eighth inning to extend Oakland's lead to 5-1. In other words, he scored a needless run in a game already won mostly just because he wanted to and figured the White Sox were the least likely team to catch him.
What They're Saying Back In Chicago: This is after Sunday's loss to Minnesota, but it's too good to waste, from former manager Ozzie Guillen on NBC Sports Chicago:
After clarifying that Pedro Grifol is 100 games under .500 as White Sox manager, Ozzie Guillén explains, as only Ozzie can, how he reacted when Grifol was hired over him. pic.twitter.com/XKeCnFvOx9
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 4, 2024
What Sox Fans Are Saying: No. Be silent. If you're still a fan of this team, you have forfeited the right to speak and should take your morose ass back to work. The economy's on fire and you've stopped denying benefits claims because you're too busy worrying about these clumps? Where's your dignity?
