Chicago White Sox lose 21st straight game, tie AL record - ESPN

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Chicago White Sox lost their 21st straight game, tying the American League record with a 5-1 defeat to the Oakland Athletics on Monday night as Max Schuemann hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in the fourth inning.

Chicago is on the longest losing streak since the 1988 Baltimore Orioles lost 21 in a row. 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.

Chicago, which last won on July 10 in a doubleheader opener against Minnesota, dropped to 27-88 and is on pace to finish 38-124, which would be the most losses since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders of the National League went 20-134. The White Sox have been held to one run or none 32 times.

«We talk about it every day, everybody knows what it is,» Chicago manager Pedro Grifol said after the loss. «It's 21 in a row, it sucks, it's painful, it hurts, you name it.… Like I said, it's not for lack of effort. Nobody wants to come out here and lose.»

Measuring up against the rest of baseball after the All-Star break is even more dreary for the White Sox. Sixteen of their losses in the streak have come post-break, and according to ESPN Stats & Information research, every other team in the majors has at least four victories in that span.

«You just try to turn the page,» outfielder Corey Julks said. «Look forward to the next day, bounce back, don't dwell on the loss, just try to learn from them and get better each day.… We're just trying to rally as a team and find a way to get a win.»

Former White Sox great Frank Thomas, a Hall of Fame first baseman, was on the team's postgame show