In your heart you knew it had to happen this way.
The Chicago White Sox were not going to do the easy thing and break the modern-day record for losses at home, where thousands of fans showed up the last three days to be eyewitnesses to history.
They were not going to give any White Sox fan the satisfaction of celebrating another loss or let the national media parachute onto the beat and file an easy story of the final days of the worst team in history.
They were not going to go with the flow and let anyone else write their script. “Let’s screw it up for everybody else,” was the mantra Garrett Crochet used in mid-August.
And screw it up they did — for fans, media and others hoping to see them break the record at Sox Park.
The Sox woke up this week, a little too late to matter, and swept the Los Angeles Angels with a 7-0 win Thursday to delay the record most still believe is inevitable.
Did all the negative attention inspire the Sox?
“I don’t know if it motivated us,” right fielder Dominic Fletcher told me afterward. “But it definitely feels good when it feels like the whole world is rooting against you, and you go out there and get a few wins.”
Was Crochet upset that many fans blatantly cheered for a Sox loss the previous two days?
“I don’t love it,” Crochet said after a long pause. “That’s all I’m going to say.”
Photos: Chicago White Sox 7, Los Angeles Angels 0 at Guaranteed Rate Field
So the Sox packed their bags and headed to Detroit after trouncing the Angels on a beautiful fall afternoon at 35th Street and Shields Avenue. They’ll attempt to shatter the Tigers’ postseason dreams in front of packed houses at Comerica Park.
They held serve at 120 losses and need to sweep the Tigers to avoid breaking the record they share with the 1962 New York Mets. Amazingly, the Sox scored a season-high seven runs in the fifth inning, and Chris Flexen, who was 0-11 in his last 23 starts — the longest winless streak by a starter in franchise history — took a shutout into the seventh inning, improving to 3-15.
Flexen left to a standing ovation from the appreciative crowd of 15,678. Like a slasher movie with a happy ending, this Sox crew went through a series of ghastly experiences and somehow came out the other end. They’re all survivors, at least the ones who weren’t traded, released, demoted or fired.
Unlike the previous two days, the crowd that showed up Thursday was generally positive, cheering for the Sox instead of rooting for history. There were no chants of “sell the team,” but a few groups of grade-school kids yelled “Let’s go White Sox” over and over, a flashback to better days.
The Sox finished with a 23-58 record at Guaranteed Rate Field but surprisingly won their final five home games.
“We’ve grinded all year and been in a ton of ball games all year, I feel like,” Fletcher said. “We just haven’t had the breaks to come out on top. So to go out there and have a big inning like we did and have Flex shove for six, seven innings, it was a lot of fun.”
Some players said privately they were miffed by the fan reaction this week, especially when the Sox were booed for winning and the Angels were cheered after hitting a home run. But most realized it was their fault for not performing better.
“Obviously, they wanted to see us win more games,” Crochet said. “We wanted to win more games as well. But throughout the year, they kept showing up, and I respect that and can appreciate that. Wish we could have put together a better season for them. But we are where we are because of what we’ve done, and there’s nothing that’s going to erase that fact.”
Crochet, their only All-Star, takes the mound Friday at Comerica Park in his final start, hoping to extend the Sox’s winning streak to four and keep the magic number stuck on 120. Interim manager Grady Sizemore said he won’t extend Crochet from his usual four-inning workload, protecting Crochet’s arm at the expense of giving the team a better shot at winning.
The Sox pushed their ace back in the rotation a day in order to have him face the Tigers, who are engaged in a battle for one of the two remaining American League wild-card spots with the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins.
Tigers President Scott Harris heard the news on Crochet and texted Sox general manager Chris Getz: “What did I ever do to you?”
Getz, who grew up in Grosse Pointe, Mich., and starred at the University of Michigan, just laughed. It was the least he could do for all his old friends in Detroit.
Is it crazy to think the Sox could sweep the Tigers and end their season tied with the Mets while spoiling Detroit’s hopes?
Maybe. But the pressure is squarely on the Tigers, who have won nine of 10 against the Sox this season and staged a late-season comeback when most left them for dead one month ago.
Crochet, who said he is receptive to an extension but still appears likely to be dealt, could be making his final start in a Sox uniform. He said he believes in Getz’s vision and that the other players do as well. The only criticism he had of the organization was the decision to stress “Play FAST” — an acronym he felt fits the Cleveland Guardians more than the Sox.
“We have a different type of player in our organization than they have,” he said. “In ‘21 — it was a different cast and crew — but I liked how (the Sox played) kind of the villain role. We kind of owned that everyone hated us. I suppose since I was drafted to this team, that’s what I had us (being), in our mind.
“The Cubs are probably, in a lot of people’s minds, Chicago’s team, for whatever that’s worth. But I always viewed us as the underdog in that role. I think that’s a great title to take on. That’s kind of what we’re doing right now, about to play (spoilers) for Detroit. And I think this is going to be a very fun series.”
The Sox are playing with house money now. When the whole world is rooting against you, there’s nothing left to lose.
