Today in White Sox History: October 2

Oct 2, 2022 - 12:37 PM

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1904

Doc White’s streak of 45 consecutive scoreless innings was broken when the New York Highlanders got a run in the first inning of the first game of a twin bill in Chicago. White would start both games, winning the first game and dropping the second.

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1908

In the heat of a three-team pennant race it may have been the greatest game even thrown by opposing hurlers against one other. Cleveland beat the White Sox, 1-0, as Addie Joss fired a perfect game. Meanwhile, Ed Walsh struck out 15 and allowed only three hits, getting the loss.

The winning run scored when catcher Ossee Schreck couldn’t hang on to one of Walsh’s spitters with a man on third.

Despite the loss, the White Sox didn’t lose ground in the race, remaining in third place, 2 ¹⁄₂ games out. Chicago would win its next three straight to move to a half-game of first, but lost to pennant-winner Detroit on the season’s final day. A win in the finale would have left the White Sox tied with (but percentage points ahead of) Cleveland for the 1908 pennant.

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1919

The White Sox dropped a second straight game in the 1919 World Series, 4-2. Starter Lefty Williams, also in on the fix, walked three batters and gave up what would be a decisive two-run triple to Larry Kopf with two outs in the fourth inning. Catcher Ray Schalk (2-for-4 in the game and gunning down both Reds base-stealers) was so suspicious of Williams’ performance that argued with the pitcher and attacked him in the locker room after the game.

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1959

Game 2 of the World Series was looking like a repeat of Game 1. The Sox were leading the Dodgers, 2-1, in the seventh inning with two out when Chuck Essegian and Charlie Neal slugged home runs off of Bob Shaw. Making matters worse was that in the middle of an eighth inning Sox rally, the slowest man in baseball, Sherm Lollar, was waved home with what would have been the tying run on a double by Al Smith; he was out by five feet. Instead of having men on second and third with nobody out, it was a runner on third with one out. The Sox lost the game, 4-3.

Earlier, in the fifth inning, Smith would get a cup of beer dumped on him, knocked over by a fan reaching for Neal’s first home run. It would become one of the most famous photographs of the 1950s.

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2015

White Sox starter Chris Sale broke Ed Walsh’s club record for most strikeouts in a season. Sale struck out Detroit’s James McCann, a future Sox catcher, in the second inning of a 2-1 win, which earned Sale his 270th strikeout. Walsh’s record had stood since 1908. Sale would finish the 2015 season with 274 strikeouts.