The White Sox entered Tuesday with an 0-94 record this season when trailing after seven innings.
They picked an improbable time for their first win in that scenario.
The Sox pulled a stunner Tuesday, scoring three runs in the eighth inning against the Los Angeles Angels to hold off history with a 3-2 victory in front of 17,606 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“First comeback win being this late in the season, hard to believe,” left fielder Andrew Benintendi said. “But glad we got it done tonight.”
The Sox’s record remained at 120 losses, tied with the 1962 New York Mets (40-120) for the most defeats in a season during Major League Baseball’s modern era.
At 37-120, the Sox need to win each of their remaining five games to avoid holding the record on their own.
The Sox got two doubles, a gift single on a popup that should have been caught and then an RBI single by Benintendi to go ahead.
“We haven’t had a lot of breaks go our way,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “To be on the other end of that, finally, it’s much needed.”
Sox starter Jonathan Cannon pitched well following a 1 hour, 5 minute rain delay, allowing three hits in six scoreless innings while striking out seven and walking one.
“I didn’t think I had my best stuff but I thought I was able to execute when I needed to, make a lot of really quality pitches and get ahead of a lot of guys and just limit the free passes,” Cannon said.
One of the key moments of execution came in the fifth. With one out, he got Mickey Moniak to pop up between home plate and the mound. First baseman Gavin Sheets and third baseman Miguel Vargas were in the area, along with Cannon. The ball dropped for an infield hit, bringing jeers and the first of several chants of “sell the team” from the crowd.
Cannon got out of that jam with a flyout to center and a strikeout.
“I called it and then heard some footsteps and got a little bit flustered,” Cannon said of the popup. “But is it what it is, the guy didn’t score so there was no damage. But definitely a learning experience. Next time I’m just going to get out of the way.”
Cannon understood the booing.
“I understand where they’re coming from, why they’re frustrated,” he said. “Obviously we’ve had a rough year. At one point or another, we were all baseball fans and we had our team growing up and we were pissed off when they were bad, so we understand where they’re coming from. But I thought it was a good crowd tonight and they were behind us for a lot of it.”
The Angels got to the Sox bullpen for one run each in the seventh and eighth.
Eric Wagaman had an RBI double in the seventh against Gus Varland and Jack López led off the eighth with a home run to left field against Prelander Berroa as the Angels built a 2-0 lead.
Zach DeLoach began the eighth-inning rally for the Sox with a one-out double against Angels reliever Hunter Strickland. He scored on a double by pinch hitter Bryan Ramos. Lenyn Sosa walked and Brock Burke entered for the Angels.
After Nicky Lopez flew out to right, Luis Robert Jr. hit a high popup into shallow center field. The second baseman Jack López couldn’t make the catch and Ramos scored to tie it at 2.
“It’s not an easy place to catch fly balls, and like I said, it’s nice to be on the other side of those breaks for a change,” Sizemore said.
Benintendi followed with an RBI single, giving the Sox the lead to complete the remarkable comeback.
“That popup is tough, the wind’s always blowing here,” Benintendi said. ” We finally caught a break. It seems like we haven’t been on that side of it too many times this year. Glad it happened that way and we came through.”
Some fans cheered while others booed when Sox reliever Justin Anderson fielded Wagaman’s grounder back to the mound and flipped the ball to first base to end the game.
“I think that people here tonight were maybe trying to see history,” Benintendi said. “But they’re going to have to wait one more day. Maybe.”
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