Losing ugly: 10 setbacks that broke White Sox season

The mother of all bullpen collapses came with the Sox leading 7-1 in the ninth inning and $46 million closer David Robertson coming on for some extra work. Sox manager Robin Ventura watched the Royals score five runs before replacing Robertson with Tommy Kahnle, who gave up the tying double and winning single. This was the middle contest of a three-game sweep, and the bullpen absorbed all the losses. The Sox dropped out of first in the division, never to return.

No list of unbearable Sox losses would be complete without a good, old-fashioned example of Jose Quintana’s lack of run support. He gave up one run on six hits over seven innings, but the Sox managed just two hits off Matt Harvey, who had given up 19 runs on 27 hits in his previous three starts. The loss brought the Sox’s losing streak to a season-high seven games, though they at least got some comic relief later in the series with the Albers game.

Unlike most of the losses on this list, this one wasn’t close, but it was painful in its implications for the future. James Shields, whom the Sox agreed to pay $27 million over 2 1/2 seasons when they acquired him from the Padres, was booed off U.S. Cellular Field after giving up seven earned runs in two innings in his Sox debut. He gave up three home runs, foreshadowing his struggles with the long ball over his first three months on the South Side.

An all-around brutal weekend against the first-place Indians started with a game in which the Sox struck out 13 times, still managed to tie it 2-2 in the ninth and then lost it in the bottom half on Carlos Santana’s walk-off homer off Nate Jones. The next day, the Sox lost 13-2, their largest margin of defeat this season. And to cap it off, Jose Ramirez hit a walk-off single off Robertson in the finale.

The season started to turn sour in May, but this is where hope was buried — on a 1-5 West Coast trip to start the second half, including the Angels’ series sweep in which the Sox went 34 straight innings without scoring a run. Between two seven-run losses was this beast in which Shields pitched brilliantly, allowing one run over an eight-inning complete game. Matt Shoemaker, though, outdid him with his first career shutout.

This might be the worst loss of the season. Chris Sale pitched eight shutout innings to help the Sox to a 3-0 lead, but Ventura lifted him after 100 pitches and went with Robertson in the ninth. Robertson gave up four runs, including a walk-off, three-run homer to Adam Lind. It was Sale’s last start before he earned a five-game suspension for cutting up team throwback jerseys — and the beginning of a lengthy stretch of tough luck for the Sox ace.

After a terrible start to the second half, the Sox started to feel a little better about themselves with four straight victories, including two to start the City Series. Then came this game in which the Cubs hit three home runs and the only run the Sox could manage was pitcher Anthony Ranaudo’s homer on his first career hit.

The first of three straight losses in games Sale started against the Tigers came after disappointing morning news. Promising outfield prospect and Chicago-area native Charlie Tilson exited his major-league debut with a torn left hamstring a night earlier and would need season-ending surgery. Sale was typically excellent, allowing two runs over eight innings with 10 strikeouts, but the offense went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Sale had several similar losses in the second half, but this complete game made unwanted history. He became the second big-league pitcher ever, along with Randy Johnson, to record multiple games of 14 or more strikeouts and no walks in a team loss. (The other was June 19, 2015, against the Rangers.) This one was perhaps easier to take because Felix Hernandez was the winning pitcher — but probably not for Sale.