Today in White Sox History: September 19
An injured Jake Peavy makes a winning debut on the South Side
1925
The White Sox set the franchise record (tied in 1987) for the largest shutout margin in team history when they blanked the Senators, 17-0, at Washington. The game was the back half of a twin bill. Ted Lyons threw a one-hitter, losing his no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning on a bloop single by Bobby Veach over the head of first baseman Earl Sheely.
Sheely led the offense, going 4-for-6 with four RBIs and two runs. The Sox had a seven-run second inning and an eight-run fifth inning.
1932
While it’s again become commonplace with the 2018, 2023 and 2024 teams, with a 9-6 loss at Comiskey Park to the Athletics, the White Sox lost their 100th game in a season for the first time, dropping to 46-100.
Red Faber (at this stage in his career a reliever) came back on no days’ rest to throw six innings in this runaway loss.
Finishing 49-102-1 in 1932 yielded a .325 winning percentage, worst in White Sox history by 1 1⁄2 games (1948). Five other times since, the White Sox have lost 100 or more: 1970 (106), 1948 (101), 2018 (100), 2023 (101) and 2024 (117, and counting).
By winning percentage (in 154-game seasons), the stretch of 1931-34 contains three of the six worst White Sox seasons ever.
1972
It was one of the wildest games the White Sox ever played. Facing the A’s in Oakland and fighting to stay alive in the pennant race, Chicago beat Oakland, 8-7, in 15 innings. The game took almost five hours to play.
The Sox couldn’t hold leads of 5-3 in the ninth inning or 7-5 in the 13th, but wound up winning on a Jorge Orta home run. Rich Gossage, the last of seven pitchers on the night, got the win.
At the time, a major league record 51 players were used in the game, 21 by the White Sox and 30 by the A’s.
1986
White Sox pitcher Joe Cowley made the record books by holding the Angels hitless in Anaheim, 7-1. It was an unusual no-hitter: Cowley walked seven, including three straight in the sixth inning, when California got its run. He also struck out eight and threw a total of 138 pitches. It was only the 12th time in big league history a club got no-hit, but scored a run.
Ron Karkovice, who had been in the majors for just a month, caught the no-hitter — and also homered in the game.
Ironically, this no-hitter would be Cowley’s last win in the big leagues, as he lost his final two starts in 1986, was traded to the Phillies where he went 0-4 and was demoted to Triple-A Maine, and then retired.
2009
Jake Peavy won his debut with the White Sox, 13-3 over the Royals, with five innings of three-run ball. Great, right? Well ... out of deference to the White Sox and their fans, the superstar wanted to get back on the field despite a severe ankle injury (from June, with the White Sox striking the blockbuster trade for Peavy while the hurler was hurt). Although he would win all three starts in September and post a glistening 1.35 ERA, pitching through the injury forced Peavy to rely too much on his upper body, getting his mechanics out of whack.
As a result, at least an indirect result, the stage was set for Peavy’s drastic injury in May 2010, the unprecendented, complete tear of his latissimus dorsi tendon and muscle — an injury that would end his year after 17 starts.