The White Sox proved that even in a battle of two last-place teams, it's possible to play spoiler.
Granted, they spoiled the experience for the fans who showed up to Guaranteed Rate Field over the last three days to see the first modern MLB team to lose a 121st game in one season, but they can only play the schedule in front of them.
The White Sox sealed just their second sweep of the season in a crazy fashion. They set a season high for runs in an inning during a seven-run fifth, and that's all the scoring either team did.
Even the most jaded fan would have to be happy for Chris Flexen, who snapped a 23-start winless streak with 6⅓ shutout innings. He'd delivered what was asked of him for $1.75 million, throwing 160 innings with a sub-5.00 ERA. By my count, he had 11 outings during this stretch that were good enough to pick up a win for an ordinary offense, along with a handful that could've been bailed out by a well-timed offensive explosion, but he had to sweat it out through the first five innings in his final start of the season.
Just like Tuesday night, an error by Jack López opened the floodgates. After Dominic Fletcher opened the fifth with a single off Tyler Anderson, Jacob Amaya hit a chopper to short that could've been a 6-4-3 if turned efficiently. López rounded it off to his right and turned to second, but he fumbled the exchange and both runners were safe. Miguel Vargas gave the Angels another chance at two, but it developed a little too slowly, and Vargas busted it out of the box to salvage a fielder's choice.
Then it was Anderson's turn to make a mistake, which he did when he walked Luis Robert Jr. on four pitches to load the bases for Andrew Vaughn, who lined a hanging changeup into left field to score Fletcher and Vargas, as Taylor Ward's throw home looked a lot like one from Andrew Benintendi.
That turned out to be the second-worst outfielder throw of the inning, because when Lenyn Sosa slashed a double to right field, Gustavo Campero's throw from right field eluded two cutoff men and allowed Vaughn of all people to score with ease from first.
Sosa took third on the sequence, which brought the infield in, and Bryan Ramos greeted Carson Fulmer with a grounder through the left side to make it 5-0.
Ramos then posed more problems for Fulmer. He drew two pickoff throws, then took off on a 3-2 pitch to Zach DeLoach, who lined a single to left center. Ramos never stopped running, and he became the first White Sox player to run 270 feet in one event when he scored to make it 6-0.
Chuckie Robinson struck out, but Fletcher singled for the second time in the inning for the seventh and final run. Amaya also came to the plate twice and singled to extend it to a 12th batter, but Vargas ended up making two outs in the inning with a flyout to right.
The White Sox collected seven of their 12 hits in the fifth, including all four of their hits with runners in scoring position. They went 0-for-13 otherwise.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox finished with a 23-58 home record.
*Anderson suffered his 15th defeat, so Flexen has additional company atop the loss leaderboard in the American League. Flexen has the lowest winning percentage by far at 3-15, as Anderson won 10 games this season, and Kutter Crawford nine.
*The White Sox's only other sweep of the season came back in April against Tampa Bay.
*Zach Neto left with a shoulder injury after running into his third out on the basepaths this series, as Robinson cut him down at second on a ball in the dirt.
*Last on the schedule? The Detroit Tigers, who have won five in a row and nine of their last 10. Only one team of destiny can prevail.
