OAKLAND, Calif. — Starter Jonathan Cannon executed the right pitches at the right time. Andrew Benintendi provided a big blast. The bullpen rose to the occasion.
And the Chicago White Sox — finally — won again.
The Sox snapped their American League record-tying 21-game losing streak Tuesday, defeating the Oakland Athletics 5-1 in front of 5,867 at Oakland Coliseum.
It was the team’s first victory since the first game of a July 10 doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins at Guaranteed Rate Field.
That was nearly a month ago. The skid ends with the Sox tied with the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for the second-longest losing streak in major-league history.
“Any time you win is great. Any time you win when you lose 21 in a row, it’s even better,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “I’m proud of these guys, they kept going. They keep coming to the ballpark every day to play hard. They care, they care for each other.
“It was cool to watch these guys pull for each other. It was a group of guys together, trying to see if we can get this behind us.”
The Sox had several potential “Here they go again” moments Tuesday.
Like in the second inning, when a single and walk gave the A’s two runners on with one out. After a meeting on the mound, Cannon induced an inning-ending double play.
Then in the third, the Sox had to settle for a force-out instead of another potential inning-ending double play as second baseman Brooks Baldwin lost control of the ball on the transfer. Cannon just calmly struck out the next batter.
Cannon allowed one run on six hits with five strikeouts and two walks in six innings.
“Cannon’s got that ‘it’ factor,” Grifol said. “He’s got that will to succeed. It almost looks like this wasn’t going to continue on his watch. That’s what it felt like.
“It almost felt like, ‘I got the ball today and this s— ends now,’ that’s what it felt like.”
Cannon has played a role in ending both lengthy losing streaks this season. He earned the save on June 7, when the White Sox beat the Red Sox 7-2 to end what was at the time a single-season franchise record 14-game skid.
On Tuesday, he led the way to ensuring the Sox didn’t get any closer to the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies, who own the all-time major-league record with 23 consecutive defeats.
“It’s bittersweet,” Cannon said. “It’s nice that it’s over, but it sucks that we’ve kind of gotten to that point to start with. Just happy to be in the winner’s circle again and look to keep building off of it.”
Cannon also described the feeling as “a sigh of relief.”
“We’re all major-league players, we have confidence in ourselves to go out and do our job every night,” he said. “It just wasn’t working out for us. Glad we could put it together tonight. It was a team effort all the way around.”
Offensively, Benintendi led the way with two hits, two runs and two RBIs.
He hit a two-run homer in the fourth against A’s starter Ross Stripling that gave the Sox a 2-0 lead. Benintendi leaned as he started his way to first base, watching to make sure the ball didn’t land in foul territory.
“It started to hook a little bit, but I’m glad it stayed fair,” he said.
The Sox had been held to three runs or fewer in 15 of their first 17 games since the All-Star break. They received enough production from the top of the lineup Tuesday to surpass that figure.
Baldwin had two hits and scored on a wild pitch. That run came during a two-run sixth as the Sox extended their lead to 4-1. Benintendi doubled and scored on a Lenyn Sosa single in the ninth for a final insurance run.
Relievers Dominic Leone, Chad Kuhl and John Brebbia each pitched one hitless inning. Brebbia got Zack Gelof to hit a flyball to shallow left field, which Benintendi caught for the final out.
Nothing was out of the ordinary when the Sox lined up for their postgame handshake.
“Everybody in here has played enough baseball, we understand that you play 162 of them,” Benintendi said. “It sucks that we lost 21 of them, but a win is a win.
“We’re all excited obviously, but it’s no different than any other win. Enjoy this one now and get back at it tomorrow.”
Brebbia joked the mood in the clubhouse afterward was “pretty chill.”
“We’ve got a day game (Wednesday), so guys are super focused on getting some sleep,” Brebbia said jokingly. “We’re pretty locked in for tomorrow, for sure.”
They’ll return with a heavy weight off their shoulders.
“If you’ve followed this streak and you follow our season, I started feeling that (sense of relief) when we started shaking hands (after the final out),” Grifol said. “It’s hard to win a major-league game. Obviously we proved that today, and we proved that over the last three weeks.
“I felt good today during the game, but again, I’ve felt good before. We just had to find a way to close it out.”
They found that way Tuesday.
