One of the biggest upgrades from the 2024 White Sox experience is being able to watch a young, rebuilding team scuffle through growing pains without the anxiety that their pitfalls will be soon be immortalized in the annals of ignominious MLB history.
But such is the curse that was last season that it still left a more palatable 2025 club in position to make ignoble franchise history, as they reached the 100-loss plateau for the third-straight season Wednesday night; a White Sox first.
Speaking to Brian Bannister last week, the plan ahead seemed uncertain for Jonathan Cannon's life as a sinkerballer. His primary pitch has neither missed enough bats nor generated enough grounders for Cannon's spot in the 2026 rotation to be guaranteed, and different solutions are still being weighed.
So, as he was called up to work behind an opener against a Yankee offense still fighting for the AL East title, Wednesday night figured to be more of an informative document of where Cannon's game is at entering an important offseason rather than a good competitive matchup for Cy Young hopeful Max Fried.
And well, it's easy to say in hindsight that you saw it coming.
Left-hander Fraser Ellard was tapped to ease Cannon's entry into the typically lefty-heavy Yankee lineup, and instead walked the first three hitters he faced on 17 pitches; mostly fastballs. Still seeking to feel even more alive, Ellard ran full counts on Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice before popping up the former and wiping out the latter on a beautiful slider, giving way to Cannon to complete a first-inning escape by blowing Paul Goldschmidt away with a high four-seamer.
For those heroics, Cannon was briefly staked to a 1-0 lead when Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery opened the second with singles, and Lenyn Sosa swung at a 2-0 pitch in a location that offered no earthly chance of being anything but popped up. In this specific game situation, he muscled that pop far enough for a sacrifice fly to left. And since there was no more convincing contact coming behind it off Fried, even after Jazz Chisholm dropped a feed for a potential double play ball, Sosa's brand of on-field reasoning was all that kept the Sox from a shutout.
This might be more lingering than a one-run second innings lead merits, but there was nothing else worth rushing to discuss. Cannon's season finale saw him mix in more elevated four-seamers, and six strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings of work represents a meaningful jump. But when he couldn't get Trent Grisham to offer a full count heater up and away, that put two runners on for Aaron Judge in the bottom of the second, who detonated on a first-pitch sinker for a three-run homer to center.
Judge's blast quickly took on the appearance of a hole the Sox would spend the rest of the night trying to trudge out of, especially as increasing rainfall gave the game the visuals to match its slogging nature. Cannon retired eight of the last nine hitters he faced, but not before he was greeted by three-straight one-out hits in the third that all spoke to the limits of his current fastball array. Ben Rice drilled a sinker away that clanged off Michael A. Taylor's glove in right-center for a disjointed-looking triple rather than a gold star of a play, followed by Goldschmidt flicking a high and outside four-seamer for an RBI single, before Chisholm split the defenders in left-center off another four-seamer to take the game permanently out of save territory.
In turn, the Sox gave Fried the kind of trouble where he almost had to set a new season-high in pitch count to complete seven-innings of one-run ball. The kind of trouble where he really had to utilize his full six-pitch mix, and only had two 1-2-3 innings. Simultaneously, a Colson Montgomery bloop down the left field line that bounced into the seats for a one-out automatic double in the fourth was the last serious Sox scoring threat of the night. And Sosa striking out on three pitches, the last of which a changeup two feet outside the zone, quickly sapped its steam.
Cam Booser, originally envisioned for leverage work at the season's beginning, came on for the bottom of the eighth and gave up back-to-back bombs to Grisham and Judge to muck up the final score, both coming on heaters that were missing a couple ticks from his season-high.
This thing looks like it's running pretty low on gas, but we're pulling in the driveway soon.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox have lost 10 out of their last 11 games.
*Sox hitting is 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position during this series.
*Montgomery broke his bat on a sweeper in the sixth and lined a soft flare to first that carried Paul Goldschmidt into tagging Vargas for an inning-ending double play. That kind of night.
*Not only have the Sox dropped 100 games for three-straight seasons, but these are three of just seven 100-loss campaigns in the franchise's 125-year history.
