White Sox end AL record-tying losing streak at 21

OAKLAND, Calif. — Andrew Benintendi hit a two-run homer and the Chicago White Sox snapped their American League record-tying losing streak at 21 games on Tuesday night, beating the Oakland Athletics 5-1.

Chicago on Monday matched the longest losing streak since the 1988 Baltimore Orioles lost 21 in a row, falling to the Athletics 5-1. The NL record since 1900 is held by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies, who lost 23 straight.

The major league low belongs to the 1889 Louisville Colonels, an American Association team that lost 26 consecutive games during a 27-111 season.

“It’s just really good to get this behind us,” Chicago manager Pedro Grifol said. “I thought we played a really clean game today.”

Chicago reliever John Brebbia concurred.

“It had been a little bit,” he said. “But you go out there and you try to win every game. And when you do, it feels good … it feels good to win a game. So, it was nice to stand out there and shake hands with everyone, because we got a W.”

According to ESPN Stats & Information research, before Tuesday, the White Sox had gone five straight games without holding a lead, their longest streak since 2019. The only season in the past 50 years in which they had a longer streak was in 2013.

“They pitched well tonight,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said of the White Sox. “We only scored one run, so they deserved to win the game. They played a good, clean game tonight, and we didn’t generate any offense. For that club over there, I’m sure they’re excited about ending their losing streak.”

Oakland did play along with the streak before ultimately losing. During warmups, in fact, Taylor Swift’s song “22” played over the loudspeakers at the Coliseum in a taunting fashion as a crowd of 5,867 fans danced and sang along.

“I think it’s all just a sigh of relief,” Chicago pitcher Jonathan Cannon, who started the game, said of the win. “We’re all major league players, we’ve got a lot of confidence in ourselves to go out and do our jobs every night. And it just wasn’t working out for us.”

When Benintendi homered to right to open the scoring at 2-0, it marked Chicago’s first lead since July 30 against the Kansas City Royals.

“It feels great. Anytime you win, it feels great,” Grifol added. “Anytime that you win when you’ve lost 21 in a row, it’s even better. I’m proud of these guys, they just keep coming to the ballpark every day, they play hard, and they care.”

Chicago, which had last won July 10 in a doubleheader opener against Minnesota, moved to 28-88. The White Sox have been held to one run or none 32 times this season.

“It’s not a big dugout [in Oakland], but it was actually kind of cool to watch these guys, for nine innings, just pull for each other there,” Grifol said. “It was just a group of guys together, just trying to see if we can get this behind us.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.