The White Sox have lost 14 games in a row.
Again.
Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Mariners tied the franchise record for consecutive defeats in a single season. Of course, that mark was set earlier this season by the Sox, who fell 54 games below .500 for the first time since 1932.
The Sox clinched a non-winning season by losing their 81st game, and were swept for the 16th time overall and eighth at Guaranteed Rate Field. They became the fourth team in baseball history to lose at least 81 times in the first 108 games of the season and the first since the 1932 Red Sox.
At 27-81, the Sox have a .250 winning percentage, equal to the 1962 Mets who went 40-120 and are considered the standard of haplessness in modern baseball. Aside from the potential deadline trades that could further weaken the team, this Sox loss showed again why they could kick the Mets out of the basement even at full strength.
Pitching in his last game before the deadline, Garrett Crochet struggled. He surrendered Cal Raleigh’s two-run homer in the first and another run in the second.
Paul DeJong made things much worse in the third. His two errors led to two unearned runs, and added an extra degree of difficulty for Crochet.
DeJong did hit a two-run homer in the seventh, cutting the Mariners’ lead to 6-3.
As the Sox continue to limit his work, Crochet went three innings and gave up five runs (three earned), striking out three and allowing six hits. He threw 62 pitches, including 32 four-seam fastballs that averaged 97.7 mph, up 0.7 mph from his average entering Sunday.
Prior to the game, manager Pedro Grifol was coy about the Sox’ plans Sunday for Crochet, though most observers knew what to expect.
“We definitely have a plan going in. I’m not going to disclose any of that stuff,” Grifol said. “I don’t want them planning a game plan against [Crochet]. Just keep in mind we’re trying to control the workload. But we’ll see how it goes.”
Like most things have for this year’s Sox, not much went well Sunday.