White Sox lose record 20th-straight Flexen start

The Chicago White Sox had their latest skid extended to 11 games with a 13-3 rout at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles on Monday, the 20th straight loss in which Chris Flexen started to set baseball’s modern-era (since 1900) record for most consecutive losses in a pitcher’s starts that had been shared with the Washington Nationals‘ Bob Groom.

Coming off an 0-10 homestand, Chicago dropped to 31-108 and is on its third-longest skid this season after slides of 21 games from July 10 to Aug. 5 and 14 from May 22 to June 6. The White Sox would have to go 12-11 to avoid tying the post-1900 loss record set by the 1962 New York Mets, who went 40-120.

Chicago is on pace to finish 36-126, which would be the second-most defeats behind the 1899 Cleveland Spiders at 20-134. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the White Sox are 4-41 in their past 45 games, the worst record over a 45-game span since the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics.

Flexen (2-14) allowed three runs and seven hits in 3⅓ innings and is 0-11 with a 5.73 ERA in 21 appearances (20 starts) since winning May 8 at Tampa Bay. He moved out of a tie with the Washington Nationals’ Bob Groom to take sole possession of the longest losing streak in a single pitcher’s starts since 1900, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Nationals lost 19 straight games started by Groom in 1909. Flexen is also two such losses ahead of the Brewers’ Chris Capuano, who was 0-13 with a 6.12 ERA for Milwaukee in 23 appearances (18 starts) from May 13, 2007, through June 3, 2010, missing 2008 and ’09 following Tommy John surgery.

“Every time I take the ball, I expect myself to go out and be competitive, have strong outings,” Flexen said. “I don’t think a lot of them have been all that great, a couple of quality starts in there; but overall, my performance has been very disappointing on my end.”

Cedric Mullins homered with three RBIs, and Austin Slater and Gunnar Henderson each drove in three runs for Baltimore, which overcame a 2-0 deficit and began a six-game homestand by improving to 5-0 against Chicago this season.

Henderson led off the first inning with a shot into the right-center bleachers, matching Cal Ripken Jr. (1991) and Miguel Tejada (2004) for the most home runs (34) by a Baltimore shortstop.

Baltimore’s leadoff batter reached in each of the first six innings for the first time since July 4, 1997, an 11-8 loss at the Detroit Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader. The Orioles went 7-for-23 with runners in scoring position and pulled within a percentage point of the American League East-leading New York Yankees.

The Orioles had their most prolific offensive day since scoring a season-high 17 runs on June 20 against the Yankees, and Baltimore’s 18 hits were its most since collecting 18 at the Houston Astros on June 21.

“I think that’s the offense we believe we are, and it was fun to see it come out today,” Slater said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.