They came to see history. Instead, they saw the White Sox win a game
CHICAGO — White Sox fans booing? It happens almost every game on the South Side.
White Sox fans chanting, “Sell the team!”? It’s like their version of “What’s up?”
But White Sox fans boo the White Sox to win a game? Well, that’s a bit unusual, even for this wacky franchise.
But that’s exactly what happened Tuesday night when the Sox defeated the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 before 17,606 fans, a few national reporters and a couple of dogs.
At first, the fans cheered as the final out was recorded. But then the boos came pouring in. It was strange to say the least, but not entirely out of the ordinary for the evening.
Many Sox fans cheered and gave a standing ovation when the Angels took the lead in the seventh inning. I know because I was sitting among them in Section 108.
The vote in Section 108: photo.twitter.com/qCdgeI4h8T
—jon greenberg (@jon_greenberg) September 25, 2024
The crowd cheered again as the Angels scored an insurance run in the eighth inning. The Sox entered the game with a 20-58 record at Guaranteed Rate Field. So many of these people paid to see a bunch of losses. At least this one would have meant something. It would have been loss number 121, breaking the losing record the 2024 team shares with the 1962 Mets. Instead, they watched the Sox win their 37th game.
Were the Sox players offended by their fans booing them for winning? Given the way they played, do they even have the right to be?
“I understand where they’re coming from, why they’re frustrated,” said starting pitcher Jonathan Cannon, who struck out seven in six scoreless innings. “Obviously, we’ve had a tough year. At one point, we were all baseball fans and we had a team growing up and we were pissed off when they were bad, so we understand where they’re coming from. But I thought it was a good crowd tonight and they were behind us a lot of the time.”
“It’s been a long season,” White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi said. “I think people here tonight maybe wanted to see history. But they’ll have to wait another day.”
Then he smiled a little.
“Maybe.”
The first time I hear White Sox fans booing when the team wins photo.twitter.com/oKHu9RbnYw
— Josh Nelson – Sox Machine (@soxmachine_josh) September 25, 2024
Could this be the start of a season-ending White Sox winning streak to deny everyone the moment they’ve been asking for? Considering the team has won just seven straight games this season (and never more than four in a row), probably not. After two more games with the Angels, they head to Detroit, where the out-of-nowhere Tigers will attempt to clinch a wild-card spot.
But you know the old saying: If you go to a baseball game, you might see something you’ve never seen before.
For example:
The Sox were 0-94 when they trailed after seven innings this season, and they were down 1-0 when Angels first baseman Eric Wagaman doubled in Kevin Pillar. They were down 2-0 in the top of the eighth inning when Jack López hit a solo home run, the first of his career. López even pointed to the outfield as he ran to second base as if he were in Anaheim.
Once again the Sox were 0-94 when they were behind after seven innings.
So we saw history on Tuesday night. We saw a comeback by the White Sox.
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In the eighth inning, Zach DeLoach and Bryan Ramos hit back-to-back doubles, scoring one run. Lenyn Sosa walked, leading to a pitching change for the Angels. With two outs, Luis Robert Jr. hit a huge fly ball to second base that López, the home run hero earlier in the inning, just missed. The ball dropped wide of him and the game was suddenly, shockingly, tied. Benintendi followed with a run-scoring single to give the Sox this thing called a lead.
“That pop-up, that’s tough,” Benintendi said. “The wind is always blowing here. We finally have a break, that’s how it feels. We haven’t been on that side that much.”
And then, just as surprisingly, Justin Anderson made his first save of the season. It was only the team’s 20th this year, compared to 36 failed saves.
Of course, this all happened when people came to the park to see the White Sox lose. They can’t even lose the right way. But I couldn’t help but smile when I walked into the locker room after the game and Petey Pablo’s “Freek-A-Leek” was blaring over the speakers.
And as for the first comeback win, were the Sox players even aware of that ridiculous statistic?
“I don’t think everyone knows it, but the first comeback win this late in the season, it’s hard to believe,” Benintendi said. “I’m happy we did it tonight.”
The White Sox tied the Mets’ record on Sunday night in San Diego, breaking it at home under the bright lights of Guaranteed Rate Field.
The announced crowd was about the season average. The game marked the beginning of Fan Appreciation Week and was also Dog Day, where fans could bring their dogs and sit in the outfield. You could hear the barking from the press box. It was a refreshing change from the booing.
A stadium-wide chant of “Sell the team!” first spread in the fifth inning when four White Sox players came together and dropped a fly ball between them down the first-base line. It was the kind of mental error that has happened all too often this season.
Feel the magic of Chicago White Sox baseball photo.twitter.com/DFXXRC2DfC
— Mr. Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) September 25, 2024
It would have been fitting if the floodgates opened and the Angels scored a bunch of runs and everyone went home happy that they had witnessed history. But that didn’t happen. Cannon got out of trouble and the game remained scoreless until the seventh. Then the fun began. Then we saw something we had never seen before: a late comeback by the White Sox.
Who knows what we’ll see on Wednesday at 35th and Shields?
(Photo: Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
