CHW 12, NYY 2: The Most Unlikely MLB Score in Recent Memory?
The most eye-popping stats behind the blowout
On Monday, in the midst of the most dreadful segment of a historically disastrous season, the Chicago White Sox proved anything can happen over nine innings.
Chicago entered the day at 28–91 on the season, good for a .235 win percentage that was exactly tied with the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics for the worst by any team in the MLB’s modern era (since 1901). The White Sox were pacing a record of 38–124, well on track to surpass the 1962 Mets’ modern era record for losses in a year (New York went 40–120 in their inaugural season).
Over the last five weeks, the White Sox had sunk to new lows, even by their putrid standards. From July 10 to August 5, Chicago lost 21 straight games, tying the American League record set by the Orioles at the start of the 1988 season.
That streak came to an end against the Oakland A’s on August 6, but the White Sox followed that game up by immediately dropping three more in a row. In total, they began their home series against the New York Yankees having lost 24 of their last 25 games, a span of futility matched by just four teams in the last 100 years.
The White Sox still hadn’t won at Guaranteed Rate Field in over a month, embarking on a franchise-record 12-game home losing streak. And, just to put the icing on the cake, they were 0–14 on Mondays for the season, scoring fewer than two runs per game in those outings.
Their opponents, the Yankees, entered at 70–49, tied for the best record in baseball. They had won five straight road games and gone 10–4 during their previous 14 games overall, scoring an AL-best 6.7 runs per game in that stretch.
Chicago found themselves 42 games behind the Yankees in the standings. They were the MLB’s worst team by 16 games and the AL’s worst by 22 games. At just 28–91, they were the only American League team without 50 wins on the season.
Let’s put this into perspective — the gap between the Yankees and the A’s (the AL’s second-worst team) was smaller (20 games) than the gap between the A’s and White Sox (22 games).
Under absolutely no circumstances should the White Sox be competitive with the Yankees, and in most sports, they probably wouldn’t be. But in baseball, where individual games are mere blips on the spectrum of a 162-game schedule, the unexpected is routine, and even teams like the White Sox can produce fantastic blips.
Chicago had their way early with Yankees rookie sensation Luis Gil, who entered the occasion 12–5 with a 3.06 ERA. An Andrew Benintendi double drove in Nicky Lopez and two batters later, a Gavin Sheets double brought Benintendi home. It was 2–1 White Sox after the first inning and 4–1 through four, at which point Gil’s day was done, having already thrown 98 pitches.
But the story was just as much the Yankees’ inability to convert offense into runs. Through four innings, they had left nine men on base, including twice pickup a third out with the bases loaded.
New York remained in range of a comeback until the bottom of the seventh inning, when the White Sox poured on six runs to make the lead 11–2. In the first series between these teams this season (from May 17–19 at Yankee Stadium), Chicago scored just five total runs (and were swept in three games by a combined 17–5).
The White Sox tacked on one last run in the eighth to make the final score 12–2, defeating the MLB’s joint-best team by a whopping 10 runs.
Chicago set season highs across the board, including in runs (12), margin of victory (10), hits (18) and extra-base hits (9). Over their previous 25 games, the White Sox scored more than five runs in a game just twice and more than three runs just five times.
It was the White Sox’s first double-digit win in their last 94 games against the Yankees and largest win versus the Bronx Bombers since 2009.
New York has now played 417 games in their franchise history against teams to finish the season (or be on pace to) winning 32% or fewer of their games. In that sample, this is the only double-digit defeat (and the White Sox are clearly well under that 32% threshold).
However, the game was much closer than the score would initially make it seem. The Yankees finished the game 2–18 with runners in scoring position and left 16 men on base, their most in any game since 2022.
According to stats queen Katie Sharp, this is just the second time in Yankees history (and first time since 1912) that the team had 20 or more baserunners in a game and finished with two or fewer runs.
In fact, despite the 10-run difference on the scoreboard, the Yankees and White Sox each had 20 batters reach base safely (via hit, walk, or hit by pitch).
This is extremely unusual. Over the 61 games this season where a team has won by double digits, the winning team had an average of 11.5 more batters on base safely. When the Red Sox beat the White Sox 14–2 on June 6, they had 24 more batters on base safely. Against the Yankees on Monday, the White Sox went even.
In the modern era, 6,948 games have seen a team win by 10+ runs, and in those games, only eight (0.12%) had the winning team finish with the same or fewer batters on base safely than their opponent.
This is the first time it’s happened since the Padres on August 5, 2011 against the Pirates and just the fourth time in the expansion era (since 1961).
And it happened with a 28–91 team against a 70–49 team. This is the largest win in the last 20 seasons by a team that entered with at least 40 fewer wins than their opponent.
One game hardly affects the big picture. Baseball Reference and Fangraphs both still have the Yankees as more than 99% favorites to make the postseason. Meanwhile, if the White Sox finish the season 42–0 and the Yankees go 0–42, Chicago would only end up a game ahead of New York (71–91 vs 70–92).
Yet, you’d be hard-pressed to find a larger aberration from the script than what the White Sox put together to give new interim manager Grady Sizemore his first career victory.
