Bad White Sox search for badly needed 'relief' from record losing streak

OAKLAND, Calif. — The White Sox hadn’t won in 21 games and 27 days going into their game Tuesday against the Athletics.

To say the feeling of winning has become foreign is an understatement for an underperforming team that tied the American League record for consecutive losses Monday.

How’s it going to feel when they finally win?

‘‘I don’t know, I haven’t felt that in about three weeks,’’ manager Pedro Grifol said a couple of hours before sending right-hander Jonathan Cannon to the mound in hopes of halting the streak. ‘‘I’m sure there will be relief, just get it behind us. Just go play the last 40-something games, whatever we have left. I’ll wait until we win a game and see what it feels like. I’ll make sure you’re the first guy I tell. I’ll buy you a beer.’’

Grifol knows his job status is precarious, even with a season left on his three-year contract, but he has leaned on his faith and stayed upbeat throughout this most challenging time after getting his dream job after the 2022 season.

The Sox (27-88 entering Tuesday) were two victories from the 1961 Phillies’ major-league-record 23-game losing streak and on pace for 124 losses, plenty of defeats to break the 1962 Mets’ all-time mark of 120.

While left fielder Andrew Benintendi — whose 10th home run of the season with Luis Robert Jr. on base gave the Sox a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning — said he didn’t know what the Phillies’ record was, most players seemed to.

‘‘Yeah, it’s all over social media,’’ reliever Steven Wilson said. ‘‘Two more games.’’

Playing on the field where Raiders owner Al Davis coined the phrase ‘‘Just win, baby,’’ the Sox really, really wanted to.

Any old kind of victory would do.

‘‘We’re trying to win one; we don’t really care,’’ Wilson said. ‘‘We’re at 21 in a row. At game 14, we weren’t like: ‘We can’t lose 24.’ It was, ‘Let’s win one today.’ ’’

The Sox not only had lost 21 in a row, but they had dropped 24 of their last 25 to fall a franchise-record 61 games below .500. They were the second team to lose 88-plus times in the first 115 games of a season.

It won’t get easier in the final seven weeks. After the A’s, the Sox play the Cubs at home Friday and Saturday, host the Yankees (67-46) early next week, then go on the road to play the resurgent Astros (58-55), who started 12-24, and the Giants (57-58), who’ve won nine of their last 13.

The A’s seemed beatable with right-hander Ross Stripling (2-10, 5.64 ERA) pitching Tuesday, but no one has been beatable for the Sox. Zack Gelof’s 14th homer in the bottom of the fourth cut the Sox’ lead to 2-1.

The Sox had four warning-track flies in the first five innings, for what it’s worth — from Miguel Vargas, Andrew Vaughn, Gavin Sheets and Korey Lee — but they had only two hits.

‘‘You expect to win every day,’’ Benintendi said. ‘‘You prepare to win. Obviously, we haven’t, but nothing changes as far as preparation.’’

And how does he deal with the unending defeats?

‘‘It’s on to the next one for me,’’ Benintendi said. ‘‘I can only speak for myself, so what’s done is done. I don’t spend any more time thinking about it. A short-term memory is something everyone in this game has had for 20 years. Control what you can control, and that’s today.’’

But there’s no getting around this losing.

‘‘I mean, it sucks,’’ Wilson said. ‘‘I don’t really know quite what else to say outside of that. It sucks. I don’t know how else to describe it to you.’’

‘‘Kind of like a broken record at this point,’’ said right-hander Drew Thorpe, who is on the injured list with a strained flexor. ‘‘Obviously, it sucks.’’