The inevitable caught up with the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.
The Sox lost their 120th game of the season 4-2 to the San Diego Padres and thus have the unpleasant honor of equaling the modern record set by the 1962 expansion New York Mets.
For former Cal stars Andrew Vaughn and Korey Lee, regulars on the Chicago team, this was a season they would like to forget. During their three seasons together (2017-19) in Berkeley, the Bears lost just 71 games.
On July 14, the White Sox suffered their 71st loss. They never recovered from this endless downward spiral.
“I think if you ask all 50 people who are part of this organization, we’re not going to be happy about it,” Lee told the Chicago Tribune. “If you’re happy about it, then I don’t know what you’re doing here.”
Lee, who made this difficult year his first as a full-time major league player, hit his 11th home run on Sunday.
“It’s hard, of course,” said the 26-year-old catcher, “but at the same time you have to focus on one day at a time.”
Vaughn and Lee were both selected in the first round of the 2019 draft, Vaughn as No. 3 by the White Sox, Lee as No. 32 by the Houston Astros.
Vaughn, who plays first base and DH, is finishing his fourth major league season. He went 1 for 4 on Sunday and has a batting average of .246. That modest number is actually the White Sox’s highest. He also leads the team in games (143), at-bats (545), runs (54), hits (134), doubles (30), RBI (67) and shares the lead with 19 home runs.
None of this has brought the slightest success.
The White Sox set the American League record with 119 losses on Saturday and could break the MLB record as early as Tuesday when they play the first of three games of the home series against the Los Angeles Angels.
Chicago concludes the schedule with three games in Detroit.
The Mets finished 40-120 in their first year of existence. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders finished 20-134, a record that remains the highest of all season losing records to this day.
The White Sox got here by snapping three losing streaks of at least 10 games, including the longest losing streak of 21 games in AL history.
Sunday’s loss was their fifth in a row and 23rd in their last 28 games. They have been outscored 19 times and are 0-101 after eight innings when trailing, according to the Chicago Tribune. The Sox were 3-22 in July and 4-22 in August.
One more loss and the White Sox will have a history they never wanted.
