Blue Jays 9, Pale Hose 2: Back to 20 under

South Siders socked in Toronto

Lest you watched Garrett Crochet’s performance on Tuesday and mistakenly thought the White Sox were a competent or competitive team, let tonight’s affair remind you that they are, in fact, terrible.

After a 12-pitch first inning from Charlotte call-up starter Nick Nastrini, the Toronto Blue Jays bats came to life in the second. Justin Turner led off with a walk, and also made the third out of the inning, which should tell you everything you really need to know: Toronto sent nine men to the plate, scoring seven runs on six hits.

Let this sequence of tweets tell the story:

Yeah.

A walk, a pop-out, a single, a single, a fly out, a single, a steal, a triple, a single, and a homer.

Ouch.

The Pale Hose responded in the third in a manner most befitting a 15-34 team: Stranding the bases loaded without scoring a single run.

Tommy Pham singled to center, Nicky Lopez singled to left, Gavin Sheets reached on a Vlad Guerrero Jr. error, and Chris Bassitt looked to be in trouble. A Paul DeJong line out and a lazy ground out to second by Andrew Benintendi quickly ended the threat.

Nastrini bounced back in the bottom of the third, retiring the Jays in order. But the Jays struck again in the fourth.

Back-to-back walks from Daulton Varsho and Guerrero put two runners on with one out. Bo Bichette singled home Varsho, and a throwing error by Dominic Fletcher allowed Guerrero to scurry home to make the game 9-0.

Bad pitching backed by bad defense does not win you many games.

After Nastrini surrendered his sixth free pass of the game, his day was mercifully over.

Tanner Banks came on in relief and recorded two much-needed outs to retire the side.

The final line for Nastrini: 3 1⁄3 IP, 7 H, 9 ER, 6 BB, 0 K.

After being bludgeoned early, the Pale Hose sleepwalked through the middle innings until Pham put the South Siders on the board with a solo homer in the eighth.

Later in the inning, Lopez reached on an error and would score on a DeJong sac fly to make the game 9-2.

Too little, too late, sadly.

Zach DeLoach drew his first major league walk in the ninth, but the Sox were retired meekly thereafter to end this ugly affair.

White Sox lose, 9-2, and fall to 15-35. This is the third time this season the club has fallen 20 games worse than .500.

What. A. Shitshow.

Futility Watch

White Sox 2024 Record 15-35, worst 50-game start in White Sox history (one game ahead the 2018 White Sox) and tied for the 48th-worst start in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Run Differential -107, tied for the 22nd-worst 50-game start in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Season Record Pace 49-113 (.300)
Race to the Worst “Modern” 162-Game Record (2003 Tigers, 43-119) 6 games behind
Race to the Worst “Modern” Record in a 162-Game Season (1962 Mets, 40-120) 8 games behind
Race to the Most White Sox Losses (1970, 106) 7 games ahead
Race to the Worst White Sox Record (1932, 52-109-1*) 3 1⁄2 games ahead
Race to the Worst American League Record (1916 A’s, 38-124*) 11 games behind
*record adjusted to a 162-game season