Today in White Sox History: June 21
Hendersons 11, Twins 7
1901
Already 29-20 and tied for first in the American League’s first season as a major league, the White Sox began a run of 10 straight wins with a shutout of the Philadelphia A’s, 4-0. Clark Griffith got the complete-game victory, his 10th win of the season.
By the end of the streak, the White Sox were three games up in the AL. From there, the White Sox were only tied or a half-game out of first for six game days the rest of the season, cruising to the first MLB AL pennant.
The 10 straight wins remain tied for the seventh-longest winning streak in team history, along with streaks in 1919, 1937, 1957, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1976 and 1981.
1942
White Sox pitcher and future Hall-of-Famer Ted Lyons won his 250th career game, beating the Red Sox, 6-5. (And a week later, Lyons would knock off the Yankees and Red Ruffing to tie Ruffing with 251 career wins.)
That season, Lyons only pitched on Sundays, and posted this incredible statistic: In his 20 starts that year he completed all 20 games! He went 14-6 with a league-leading 2.10 ERA.
At the end of the season, at age 42, Lyons joined the Marines and served for four years during World War II.
1956
It was either a case of great pitching, or terrible hitting, as it was dual one-hitters as the White Sox beat the Orioles, 1-0, in a game that took just 2:12 in front of a mere 4,581 at Comiskey Park. Baltimore starter Connie Johnson, a former White Sox pitcher, threw seven innings of one-hit ball, relieved by George Zuverink and his clean eighth inning. Meanwhile Jack Harshman of the White Sox went all nine innings and allowed only one hit.
The White Sox scored their run in the first inning, when Jim Rivera walked, stole second and scored on a double by Nellie Fox. Baltimore’s only hit came in the seventh inning, a double off the bat of Gus Triandos.
1964
The White Sox dropped their ninth straight game on the season to the Yankees, 2-1, in 17 innings. It allowed New York to sweep a twin bill where the Sox scored only one run on the day (over 26 innings), having lost the opener, 2-0. The nightcap loss really hurt, because New York got the winning run home thanks to an error by infielder Al Weis.
The Sox would lose another one to the Yanks the next day (running the streak to 10 in a row), and the Yankees would sweep the four-game series, giving up just one run over 41 total innings. In fact, this was part of a run that saw the White Sox lose nine games to the Yankees over 11 days. Chicago finally won again vs. the Yankees ... in August.
Strangely, the White Sox were 6-12 vs. New York in 1964, but the dozen head-to-head losses were very costly, because the Sox ended the season with nine straight victories but still finished one game behind the Yankees.
1973
White Sox pitcher Stan Bahnsen, a 21-game winner in 1972, threw one of the strangest shutouts in baseball history. Bahnsen beat the A’s, 2-0, at Comiskey Park. He allowed 12 hits and a walk in the process. The A’s left 10 men on base. It was two hits allowed short of the record for most allowed in a shutout.
1974
Hendersons were wild in an 11-7 win at Minnesota, as Ken Henderson clouted two homers and Joe Henderson earned his first major league victory. The Sox jumped out to a 7-0 lead after their second at-bats, and when “opener” Ken Tatum could not parlay a gift blowout from his offense into the five-inning minimum, handing a win to Joe. Joe went 4 1⁄3 innings in a bulk relief role, striking out seven, walking six and being charged with two runs that came in after he left the game. Interestingly, manager Chuck Tanner chose to forego his DH with Joe, choosing to keep the pitcher in the game and bat for himself rather than go to the pen; thus Henderson (fielder’s choice grounder to second base) and fellow reliever Cy Acosta (strikeout) both got rare ABs in the DH era in this contest.
The White Sox totaled 21 hits and raised their record to 30-31 (the club in fact hovered from May-on around .500, finishing right at 80-80-3. Carlos May went 5-for-5 with three RBIs and Ken went 3-for-4 with six driven in. Jorge Orta and Bill Sharp also had three-hit days.