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 “How ya doing?”
But White Sox fans booing the White Sox for winning a game? Well, that is a little unusual, even for this wacky franchise.
But that’s exactly what happened Tuesday night when the Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels, 3-2, in front of 17,606 fans, some national reporters and a bunch of dogs.
At first, fans cheered when the final out was recorded. But then the boos rained down. It was odd, to say the least, but not completely out of character for the night.
After all, many Sox fans cheered and gave a standing ovation when the Angels took a lead in the seventh inning. I know because I was sitting among them in Section 108.
The mood in Section 108: pic.twitter.com/qCdgeI4h8T
— jon greenberg (@jon_greenberg) September 25, 2024
The mass of fans cheered again when the Angels tacked on an insurance run in the eighth. The Sox came into the game with a 20-58 record at Guaranteed Rate Field. So many of these people have paid to see an awful lot of losses. At least this one would’ve meant something. It would’ve been loss No. 121, breaking the loss record the 2024 team shares with the 1962 Mets. Instead, they saw the Sox win their 37th game.
Were the Sox players offended by their fans booing them for winning? Given the way they’ve played, do they even have a 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 rough year. At one point or another, we were all baseball fans and we had our 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 for a lot of it.”
“It’s been a long season,” White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi said. “I think that people here tonight were maybe trying to see history. But they’re going to have wait one more day.”
Then he flashed a quick smile.
“Maybe.”
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Could this be the start of a White Sox season-ending winning streak to deny everyone the moment they’ve been clamoring for? Considering the team has won consecutive games only seven times all season (and never more than four in a row), probably not. After two more with the Angels, they head to Detroit, where the out-of-nowhere Tigers are trying to lock down a wild-card berth.
But you know the old saying: whenever you go to a baseball game, you could see something you’ve never seen before.
For instance:
The Sox were 0-94 when trailing after seven innings this season and they found themselves down 1-0 when Angels first baseman Eric Wagaman drove in Kevin Pillar with a double. They were down 2-0 in the top of the eighth inning when Jack López hit a solo homer, the first of his career. López even pointed to the outfield as he ran to second base like he was in Anaheim.
Again, the Sox were 0-94 when trailing after seven innings.
So we did see history on Tuesday night. We saw a White Sox comeback.
In the bottom of the eighth, Zach DeLoach and Bryan Ramos hit back-to-back doubles, scoring one run. Lenyn Sosa walked, prompting a pitching change from the Angels. With two outs, Luis Robert Jr. hit a towering fly ball to second base and López, the home run hero earlier in the inning, just missed it. The ball dropped next to 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, it’s tough,” Benintendi said. “The wind is always blowing here. We finally got a break it feels like. We haven’t been on that side of it too many times.”
And then, just as surprisingly, Justin Anderson locked down his first save of the season, which was only the team’s 20th all year, compared to 36 blown saves.
Of course, all of it 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 postgame clubhouse as Petey Pablo’s “Freek-A-Leek” boomed through the speakers.
As for the first comeback win, were the Sox players even aware of that ridiculous statistic?
“I don’t think everybody knows that, but first comeback win coming this late in the season, that’s hard to believe,” Benintendi said. “I’m glad we got it done tonight.”
The White Sox tied the Mets’ record on Sunday night in San Diego, which set them up to break it at home under the bright lights of Guaranteed Rate Field.
The announced crowd was right around their season average. The game marked the start of “Fan Appreciation Week,” and it was also “Dog Day,” where fans could bring their pooches and sit in the outfield. You could hear the barking from the press box. It was a refreshing change from the boos.
A full stadium-wide chant of “Sell the team!” first spread in the fifth inning when four White Sox players converged and allowed a fly ball to drop 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 pic.twitter.com/DFXXRC2DfC
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) September 25, 2024
It would’ve been fitting if the floodgates opened and the Angels scored a bunch of runs and everyone went home happy they witnessed history. But that didn’t happen. Cannon got out of the jam and the game stayed scoreless until the seventh. That’s when the fun began. That’s when we saw something we haven’t seen before: a late White Sox comeback.
Who knows what we’ll see at 35th and Shields on Wednesday?
(Photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
