Guardians 7, White Sox 0: No sweep for the moms

Ah yes, the South Siders we all know and love are back

The Chicago White Sox will end their win streak at four games and are unable to pick up the sweep against the Cleveland Guardians. Instead, they were shutout, 7-0. We’ve covered way more losses than wins thus far, so this one should be a relatively easy and boring recap.

Michael Soroka hasn’t seem to have it this year, and didn’t today. He got off to a fine start, but it quickly went south starting in the top of the third inning when Rafael Ortega botched a ball in center field to gift Estevan Florial a triple. Brayan Rocchio drove him in with a sacrifice fly, as Korey Lee was unable to corral the ball at the plate on a decent throw from Tommy Pham.

The South Siders threatened in the bottom of the third as the first two runners reached against Logan Allen, but an Andrew Vaughn double play and line out quickly ended the threat. The true unraveling began in the top of the fourth when Andrés Giménez was hit by a pitch and on the ground in pain, and instead of leaving the game he smacked the next pitch he saw out to right field for a solo home run. A Josh Naylor double led to a David Fry (who?) home run and before we knew it, it was 4-0.

White Sox had two on again in the bottom of the fourth, but couldn’t do anything with it.

Soroka went 5 1⁄3 innings with four hits, five runs, and four strikeouts. He now has a 0-5 record and 6.39 ERA. With two outs in the top of the sixth inning with a runner on third, what should have been an inning ending ground out to first base was instead a whiff from Vaughn, just another silly play to add onto the damage. A passed ball made it 6-0, and a double by Florial extended the Cleveland to 7-0.

Allen had a much better outing today, going six innings with six hits, no runs, and three strikeouts to pick up the win.

White Sox fall to 12-29, and there are literally no highlights to show. Since there aren’t any, here is some pure Mom content.

Also, I’ll throw out some Mom content as well. Shout-out to my Mom, Natalie, who grew up into a Cubs family and married into a White Sox one. Ever since, it’s been all White Sox for her, even if she doesn’t care or know what’s going on. She has been so supportive of my love for sports, and is proud to be in a White Sox family. She also has no problem keeping it real when talking to people about the current state of the team when she does briefly mention them.

The team will get back to work tomorrow night at home against the Washington Nationals, who have been sneakily good this year. It’s a 6:40 p.m. CT start, and Chris Flexen will be on the mound.

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Futility Watch

White Sox 2024 Record 12-29, the second-worst 41-game start in White Sox history behind the 11-30 2018 White Sox and tied for 42nd-worst start in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Run Differential -90, tied for the 24th-worst 41-game start in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Season Record Pace 47-115 (.293)
Race to the Worst “Modern” 162-Game Record (2003 Tigers, 43-119) 4 games behind
Race to the Worst “Modern” Record in a 162-Game Season (1962 Mets, 40-120) 6 games behind
Race to the Most White Sox Losses (1970, 106) 9 games ahead
Race to the Worst White Sox Record (1932, 52-109-1*) 5 1⁄2 games ahead
Race to the Worst American League Record (1916 A’s, 38-124*) 9 games behind
Race to the Worst MLB Record (1899 Spiders, 21-141*) 26 games behind
*record adjusted to a 162-game season

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