Few, if any, thought it will be this unhealthy. However the indicators had been there, as Yahoo Sports activities’ Russell Dorsey identified in a mid-April evaluation of the already struggling White Sox. And sadly for the South Siders, the 2024 season continued to nosedive towards historic lows, ultimately to the purpose that inglorious historical past — 121 losses — grew to become inevitable.
Right here’s a timeline of Chicago’s season from hell, one that provides the 2024 White Sox a compelling case because the worst staff in baseball historical past — or at the very least the worst for the reason that 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who went 20-134.
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March 28: Opening Day, when hope is at its peak within the baseball season. The internet hosting White Sox bought shut out 1-0 in entrance of 33,420 followers towards the Detroit Tigers and ace Tarik Skubal. Within the sequence, Chicago was swept, beginning the season 0-3. Every defeat was by one run.
April 2: Lastly, a victory after beginning 0-4. Garrett Crochet confirmed why he’s the group’s ace with a robust outing vs. Atlanta.
April 5: In maybe the primary omen of how the season would pan out, 2023 All-Star Luis Robert Jr. strained his proper hip flexor rounding first base whereas attempting to leg out a double.
Robert missed two months because of the damage earlier than returning June 4. The membership went 14-33 in his absence.
April 9: Simply 4 days after Robert’s damage, Chicago misplaced third baseman Yoán Moncada for greater than 5 months because of a left adductor pressure. Moncada was trying to beat out an infield single when he suffered the damage.
April 15: The White Sox held an prolonged pregame staff assembly. Supervisor Pedro Grifol declined to inform reporters in regards to the specifics of the dialogue, but it surely’s truthful to guess that it needed to do with the staff’s 2-14 begin to the season. Chicago misplaced its subsequent two video games to the visiting Kansas Metropolis Royals.
April 19: The White Sox had been shut out once more, this time towards Philadelphia. The loss, which marked the sixth time the staff was held scoreless within the early weeks of the season, dropped them to 3-16.
“I simply assume guys are urgent,” Grifol mentioned of the staff’s early season struggles. “They actually care. They wish to flip this round. They wish to produce and be part of the answer and a part of the turnaround.”
April 28: Pitcher Erick Fedde led the White Sox to a 4-2 victory towards Tampa Bay with 9 strikeouts in 8⅓ innings. The victory concluded a three-game sweep of the Rays. Fedde turned out to be a free-agent gem in 2024 and a uncommon win for the White Sox entrance workplace. He was traded to the Cardinals the day earlier than the July 30 commerce deadline.
Might 8-11: The White Sox received 4 straight video games, their longest profitable streak of the season. With the 4 consecutive victories, the membership’s profitable share climbed to .300.
Might 18: Yankees starter Luis Gil struck out 14 White Sox in a 6-1 drubbing. Each participant in Chicago’s lineup struck out at the very least as soon as — together with three apiece for Andrew Vaughn and Korey Lee — because the staff struck out 16 occasions in all.
Might 21: The White Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-0 due to a gem from Crochet. However Eloy Jiménez suffered a hamstring damage whereas working the bases, an ailment that ultimately put him on the IL, marking the eighth time he’d landed there since April 2019. Jiménez was out of motion for greater than a month.
Might 22: The White Sox had been pummeled 9-2 by the Blue Jays, starting a 14-game skid, their first of a number of lengthy dropping streaks to return.
Might 24: The Sox’s defeat on today had extra to do with unhealthy umpiring than unhealthy luck or incompetence from the White Sox. Chicago misplaced 8-6 to the Orioles in a recreation that ended with an interference name on an infield fly.
Reportedly, MLB later instructed the White Sox that it was the unsuitable name. But the L stood.
Might 26: After the Sox fell 4-1 to the Orioles for his or her fifth straight loss, Grifol held a brief postgame information convention wherein he referred to as out his gamers. “Many of the guys had been f***ing flat right now. Unacceptable.” Grifol’s dialogue with reporters lasted 1 minute, 10 seconds.
Lee didn’t take kindly to the criticism, in keeping with NBC Sports activities Chicago. “I’ll let him touch upon his assertion. He’s going to really feel that means, and clearly we have now a special feeling,” he mentioned.
June 2: After a 6-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, then-Sox outfielder Tommy Pham popped off about being a tricky man after he was thrown out on the plate “by a mile” — his phrases — in a collision with catcher William Contreras. The bravado and jawing from the celebrating Brewers didn’t sit nicely with Pham.
“I am by no means beginning something, however I will be ready to complete it,” Pham instructed reporters postgame. “There is a cause I do every kind of preventing within the offseason. As a result of I am ready to f*** any individual up.”
“There’s a cause I do every kind of preventing within the offseason. As a result of I’m ready to f—- any individual up” -Tommy Pham pic.twitter.com/REBPGPj5BX
— CHGO White Sox (@CHGO_WhiteSox) June 2, 2024
The White Sox traded Pham to the Cardinals in late July.
June 5: A walk-off residence run from the Chicago Cubs’ Mike Tauchman doomed the White Sox to a 7-6 loss and a franchise-record-tying thirteenth straight defeat. It additionally accomplished two straight heartbreaking losses to the crosstown rival Cubs.
June 6: A 14-2 loss to the Boston Pink Sox marked probably the most lopsided defeat of the season to that time. The face-plant gave the White Sox 14 straight Ls, breaking the franchise report beforehand owned by the 1924 staff.
June 7: The White Sox defeated the Boston Pink Sox 7-2 to conclude the dropping skid at 14 video games. Crochet led the best way with 10 strikeouts in six innings. Lastly, there was pleasure in Mudville.
In the event that they’d solely identified a worse skid was coming.
Then once more, maybe some people did. Right here’s what Yahoo Sports activities’ Jack Baer wrote after the top of that dropping streak:
“The White Sox are nonetheless the lowest-scoring staff in MLB. They’re nonetheless the worst pitching staff in MLB by ERA+, with solely the Coors Discipline-afflicted Colorado Rockies permitting extra runs this season. They entered Friday with 25 out of 45 gamers to look this season holding a adverse WAR. They nonetheless have by far the worst run differential in MLB at minus-147.”
June 10: The White Sox’s bullpen collapsed in dramatic style, blowing a 4-0 lead within the backside of the eighth and ninth innings towards the internet hosting Seattle Mariners. The sport ended on a Cal Raleigh walk-off grand slam. Following that 8-4 victory for Seattle, the following two video games vs. the Mariners had been one-run losses for Chicago.
July 10: Within the first recreation of a doubleheader towards the Minnesota Twins, reduction pitcher Michael Kopech offered a uncommon spotlight for White Sox followers by throwing an immaculate inning in Chicago’s 3-1 victory. It was the 116th immaculate inning in MLB historical past and the primary by a White Sox pitcher in additional than a century.
Within the second recreation of the day, the White Sox misplaced 3-2. Because it turned out, the loss was the start of one other historic streak.
July 30: The MLB commerce deadline handed, and the White Sox managed to bungle that as nicely. Regardless of rumors suggesting that Crochet and Robert would discover new properties on the deadline, each stayed in Chicago. The most important commerce the White Sox made was a three-team deal involving Fedde, Kopech and Pham, which someway netted Chicago solely three prospects. The Sox additionally traded away Jiménez, a transfer that marked the group’s capitulation on Jiménez’s as soon as promising however injury-riddled profession.
Aug. 5: On today, extra inglorious historical past was made, because the White Sox fell 5-1 to the Oakland A’s for their twenty first consecutive loss, a dropping streak that tied the 1988 Orioles for the longest in American League historical past. Hitting the reset button after the All-Star break clearly didn’t work for Chicago, because the staff’s report stretched to 0-17 for the reason that Midsummer Basic.
Aug. 6: The 2024 White Sox can at the very least say they weren’t definitively worse than the 1988 Orioles, as they beat the A’s 5-1 to snap the 21-game skid. “It’s only a sigh of reduction,” rookie pitcher Jonathan Cannon instructed The Athletic. “We’re all major-league gamers. We’ve loads of confidence in ourselves to exit and do our jobs each evening. … It’s bittersweet. It’s good that it’s over, but it surely sucks that we’ve gotten to that time.”
Aug. 8: Because it turned out, that win was the ultimate victory for Grifol as White Sox supervisor. Two days later, Grifol bought the boot in Chicago, together with bench coach Charlie Montoyo, third-base coach Eddie Rodriguez and assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar. Former MLB All-Star Grady Sizemore was tasked with captaining the ship to the bitter finish as interim supervisor.
Grifol’s run with the White Sox ended with an 89-190 managerial report, giving him a profitable share of .319. Along with all of the dropping, his tenure will probably be remembered for his lack of ability to regulate to the realities and wishes of a rebuilding staff.
Aug. 13: Yankees famous person slugger Juan Soto recorded the primary three-home-run recreation of his MLB profession towards … who else? … the White Sox.
Aug. 14: In what appeared like a uncommon second of self-awareness from administration about how issues had been going, the White Sox introduced they’ll reduce season-ticket costs for 2025 by a median of 10%.
Aug. 17: The White Sox had been formally eradicated from the playoffs by way of a 6-1 loss to the Astros. With six weeks nonetheless remaining within the common season, that they had loads of time to consider what they should do to start to rebound in 2025.
Aug. 25: The White Sox misplaced their one centesimal recreation of the season, reaching the century mark (the unhealthy means) for the sixth time in franchise historical past. The earlier earliest date that the membership hit 100 losses was Sept. 19, 1932.
Aug. 30: The Wall Avenue Journal caught up with surviving members of the 1962 New York Mets, the staff that held the modern-era report for losses in a season after going 40-120 within the franchise’s first marketing campaign. “I really feel sorry for them,” Ed Kranepool instructed the outlet. However … “Higher them than me,” he mentioned earlier than his dying on Sept. 9.
Aug. 31: The Sox tied the franchise report with their 106th loss, the ninth of a 12-game streak. The loss was a 5-3 defeat by the hands of the Mets in entrance of 18,267 still-faithful followers.
Sept. 3: The play: a simple fly ball into shallow left subject.
White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas, shortstop Jacob Amaya and left fielder Andrew Benintendi all converged on the ball. Vargas appeared to assume he had it. Then he ran face-first into Benintendi’s shoulder.
The result: a black eye, each figurative and literal.
Sept. 11: One other benchmark of futility was matched when the White Sox misplaced their team-record fifteenth straight at residence, falling to the Guardians 6-4. The defeat additionally marked the twenty fourth time this season that Chicago was swept. “All people’s pissed,” dropping pitcher Davis Martin mentioned after giving up 5 earned runs within the first three innings.
Sept. 14: The house dropping streak ended at 16 in dramatic style. Andrew Benintendi hit a walk-off solo homer, triggering uncommon fireworks on the South Facet.
Sept. 16: May the White Sox avert their date with historical past? On today, Andrew Benintendi hit two homers in an 8-4 victory for Chicago towards the L.A. Angels. It was the White Sox’s third straight win, their longest profitable streak since June 27-29.
Sept. 21: Transfer over, 2003 Detroit Tigers. You’ve gotten firm. The White Sox misplaced their 119th recreation, falling 6-2 to the San Diego Padres. The defeat tied Chicago with Detroit for probably the most losses in a season by an American League staff. Happily, the oldsters working the White Sox’s X deal with had a humorousness about it.
Sept. 22: The White Sox tied the modern-era report with their one hundred and twentieth lack of the season, matching these 1962 Mets in a 4-2 loss to the Padres. The Sox additionally surpassed the 2003 Tigers (119 losses) for the AL report in dropping.
Sox Twitter did not disappoint:
Sept. 24: The White Sox averted infamy with a come-from-behind, 3-2 victory over the Angels. It was a weird evening that includes jeers, chants and even a wedding proposal at Assured Charge Discipline.
Sept. 25: The Sox delayed 121 once more, this time with a walk-off, Tenth-inning victory off the bat of Andrew Benintendi.
Sept. 26: Historical past wouldn’t be made at residence, because the White Sox accomplished an unbelievable sweep of the Angels to remain at 120 losses with their thirty ninth win. The 7-0 Chicago victory helped the Angels make some historical past of their very own, as they set their franchise loss report with 96.
Sept. 27: The White Sox head to Detroit for the ultimate sequence of the season. Three video games left to make (or keep away from) baseball historical past.
