White Sox losing streak reaches 20 after loss to Twins

MINNEAPOLIS -- The White Sox took another step toward ignominious history with a 13-7 loss to the Twins on Sunday afternoon at Target Field, their 20th straight loss and sixth straight series sweep (and 18th this season).

The franchise-record losing streak is tied for the third-longest losing streak in MLB history behind only the Baltimore Orioles (21 games in 1988) and the Philadelphia Phillies (23 games in 1961).

“There’s two ways of approaching it,” White Sox Manager Pedro Grifol said. “You either sulk on it, put your head down and quit, or sulk on it for a little bit, flush it and come out and be a pro, and give it the best you got. There’s nothing you can do about [today’s game]. That game’s over.”

It’s just the second time in franchise history that the Sox have gone winless in Minnesota in a season (0-7); the first time was 1981. Chicago is 0-16 since the All-Star break.

“Like I’ve said before, it’s very difficult,” Chicago center fielder Luis Robert Jr. said of the losing streak. “But there’s nothing else we can do. Just come here every day as we’ve been doing and try to win games.”

With Sunday’s loss, the Sox (27-87) joined the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (25-88-1) as the only teams in MLB history to lose 87 or more games in the first 114 games of a season. For his part, Grifol was proud of the heart his team showed to come back from an 8-0 deficit and make it a game. But that may be cold comfort to an eerily quiet locker room that’s all too aware of its place in history.

“We haven’t won a game in [three] weeks,” Grifol said. “To watch these guys give it everything they’ve got after getting down 8-0 in the second [inning] is a tribute to the character we have on this team. We have to keep doing that. It’s not going to do us any good to put our head down and head to Oakland and not play baseball the right way.”

In Sunday’s defeat, control problems got the best of Chris Flexen. The White Sox starter walked three batters, each of whom came around to score to stake Minnesota to a 3-0 lead.

That was the beginning of the end of Flexen’s day, as he gave up a season-high eight runs (six earned) on seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts in just 1 2/3 innings. Flexen's two shortest outings this season have both come against the Twins at Target Field, and he is winless in his last 16 starts dating to May 8 vs. the Rays.

“We are evaluated on results and the results were pretty miserable,” Flexen said. “Thought I made some decent pitches at times, but I put our bullpen in a really bad situation, dug us in an eight-run hole early on.”