The Chicago White Sox’ 6-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night extended their losing streak to a whopping 19 consecutive games. It has been a miserable stretch which has put them on a pace to set a new record for modern baseball futility over a full season.
Before they reach that level of disappointment, they might reach another infamous level on Sunday.
Should the White Sox lose Sunday’s game, their streak of defeats would reach 20 consecutive games. In the history of Major League Baseball there have only been 11 losing streaks that have reached that level, with no team doing so since the 1988 Baltimore Orioles — who actually opened the season with a 21-game losing streak.
There have only been three 20-game losing streaks since the mid-1940s.
The three most recent have been the 1988 Orioles (21 games), the 1969 Montreal Expos (20 games) and the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies (23 games).
Every other 20-game losing streak in major league history happened prior to the 1944 season, including seven which occurred earlier than the 1916 season.
Officially, the longest losing streak in Major League Baseball history is a 26-game whopper by the Louisville Colonels during the 1899 season.
The White Sox would need to lose their next seven games to match that record. Their next seven games are against the Twins, Oakland A’s (three games), Chicago Cubs (two games) and the New York Yankees. The three Oakland games might be the club’s best chance to snap the streak given that Oakland is also one of the league’s worst teams this season. The only catch there is that the A’s have actually been playing really good baseball over the past few weeks and carried a 16-9 record since the start of July entering play on Saturday.