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The White Sox made history – at least in games I can access from the Baseball-Reference.com database, which includes all contests from 1919 through the present. For the first time, the team gave up 18 runs and 23 hits. Before last night, they’d given up 18 runs 13 times, all losses. They’d also given up 23 hits five times, also all losses. But they’d never given up the precise combination of 18 runs and 23 hits. When you’re a Sox fan, you have to take your accomplishments where you find them.

Looking at it from the offensive side of the equation – seven runs on 14 hits – it was not unique, but it was against the odds. The Sox record when they score seven runs in a game is 759-191, a .798 winning percentage. The team’s record when collecting 14 hits is 390-120, a .765 percentage. Surprisingly, the record when doing both is only 47-25-1, a .653 percentage. I would have thought that it would have been at least as high as the lower of the two, but that’s not what my search shows.

Anyway, the Good Guys have now lost five in a row since climbing back to .500. They stand 6.5 games behind Detroit and are in danger of playing themselves out of the division race. With only 53 games left, the time to do something about it is now. Go Sox!