White Sox fall to 31-102 with loss to Rangers
For the White Sox' 102nd loss, a couple of hundred can say they were there.
Finishing a game suspended by rain after only four pitches the night before, the Sox fell to 31-102 with a 3-1 loss to the Rangers before the sparsest of crowds Wednesday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The 4:10 p.m. start, scheduled about 19 hours earlier, attracted approximately 150-200 fans on a 77-degree afternoon at the first pitch. There weren’t many more at the end of the game, which saw the Sox lose their fifth straight, ninth in the last 10 and 35th of 39 as they fell to 71 games below .500.
The Sox need to go 12-17 over their last 29 games to avoid tying the 1962 Mets (40-120) for most losses in major league history.
Right-handed reliever Matt Foster, called up from Triple-A Charlotte as the 27th man in the second game, was the opener in what will be a bullpen game.
The paid attendance will be higher for the nightcap, but well below the Sox' 18,342 in their first 63 dates, which ranks 27th among 30 teams in this historically bad season.
The crowd in the first game reminded of the 2020 COVID season when games were played without fans.
"I wasn’t around in the COVID days," interim manager Grady Sizemore said, "but you could hear everything. It happens sometimes, you have games where there are not a lot of fans. But I felt like the guys played hard, just couldn’t string anything together offensively."
“You know you have to tone down your comments, though, because you know everybody can hear them,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said.
Adolis Garcia doubled in a run in the first inning against Chris Flexen (2-13), Marcus Semien doubled in a tiebreaking run in the seventh and Corey Seager added an RBI single in the seventh for the Rangers (61-71). Sox left fielder Corey Julks doubled in a run against Andrew Heaney in the third.
This was not officially a start for Flexen (0-10), who in his last 19 starts has seen the Sox lose every game. Flexen (5.29 ERA) gave up three runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out four over 6 1/3 innings.
NOTES: Right-hander Steven Wilson, who had been on the 15-day injured list with a low back strain, joined Triple-A Charlotte for a rehab assignment.
*Infielder Nick Senzel, designated for assignment Monday, elected free agency in leiu of accepting an outright assignment to Charlotte.