White Sox ride Flexen's gem, 7-run 5th to sweep over Angels

CHICAGO -- The White Sox had not scored seven runs in an inning this season prior to their 7-0 shellacking of the Angels on Thursday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field, completing their second three-game sweep of 2024, with both coming at home.

Chris Flexen had a franchise-record 23 straight winless starts, with an 0-11 record and a 5.48 ERA during that prolonged stretch. But none of those statistics mattered.

Apparently, all the White Sox had to do was arrive on the precipice of true losing history to turn things around. They entered the final home series against the Angels with 120 defeats, tied with the 1962 Mets for the highest total in the Modern Era (since 1901).

They departed for their final series of the season in Detroit with the same total.

Let’s use this final home series to look at three key topics.

Fans support
With Thursday’s announced crowd of 15,678, the White Sox drew 1,380,433 for the season, with an average of 17,928 per game. It’s an understandably agitated fan base, as they exhibited during the first two games of the series, although there were a couple of standing ovations for the team in the home finale.

“When you look at our team record, which no one is proud of, and you look at the support we received from the fan base, we are super appreciative of the support we get,” White Sox senior vice president, chief revenue and marketing officer Brooks Boyer told MLB.com. “We get it. We understand that people are really frustrated with the team.

“We respect it, and hopefully over time, we will earn that trust back. … But we certainly have alienated a number of our fans. Some of them being as strong of a fan or as ardent of a fan as they could possibly be.”

There was some cheering for the White Sox to lose No. 121 during the first two games of the series, which didn’t sit well with Garrett Crochet. The southpaw also had great praise for their support.

“I don’t love it. … That’s all I’m going to say,” said Crochet after a long pause. “Obviously, they wanted to see us win more games. We wanted to win more games, as well.

“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.”

Managerial search
In a wide-ranging, thoughtful interview prior to the sweep, Crochet provided a strong endorsement of interim manager Grady Sizemore.

“I would put my name behind Grady,” Crochet said. “He’s a very easy guy to follow. He’s a good leader in the clubhouse.

“Most of all, he’s got the credibility of having played at this level, and at a really high level. There’s a lot of faith and trust that the guys have in him. Would love to see him here moving forward.”

General manager Chris Getz put Sizemore in consideration for the manager job during his media session Monday. Sizemore seemed most moved by his players’ support.

“I’ve had the best relationship with these guys,” Sizemore said. “They’ve kind of given me a new life and a new love for the game. Just the way they responded since I’ve been in this position is one of the best feelings I’ve had.”

There’s no leg up for Sizemore, with Getz going through a thorough an extensive search. Sergio Santos, the manager for Double-A Birmingham’s Southern League champs, also apprised Getz of his interest in the job.

What's next?
That topic is far too vast to be tackled in this remaining space, with a great deal of work ahead of the front office. Crochet presented an interesting idea, identity-wise.

“This year, we tried to force the ‘play F.A.S.T.’ motto [Fearless, Aggressive, Selfless, Technically Sound],” Crochet said. “What we were trying to do with ‘play F.A.S.T.’ was go out there and be Cleveland, and we’re not Cleveland. Though they play a very admirable brand of baseball, that’s just not who we are.

“We have a different type of player in our organization than they have. I always liked in ’21 -- it was a different cast and crew -- but I liked how it was kind of the villain role. We kind of owned that everyone hated us, that sort of thing. I suppose since I was drafted to this team, that’s what I had us to be in our mind.”