It was the 80th defeat of the season for the Sox. Afterward, the topic of 100 losses came up. It\u2019s not a number Martin thinks about at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go out and you go do your job and play baseball,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have talent, we have the ability, it\u2019s just the little miscues here and there that are going to plague a young team. If we learn from them, I think .500 ball (for the remainder of the season) is definitely in our cards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sox lost three of their next four and came into Saturday\u2019s game against the Minnesota Twins at Rate Field with a 45-83 record, needing to go 18-16 the rest of the way to avoid a third consecutive 100-loss season.<\/p>\n
The Sox entered 2023 with just four 100-loss seasons in franchise history (102 in 1932, 101 in 1948, 106 in 1970 and 100 in 2018). They lost 101 games that season<\/a> and followed it up by completely falling off the cliff, setting the modern major-league record with 121 defeats<\/a>.<\/p>\n They\u2019re on pace for 105 losses this season.\u00a0To finish with fewer than 100, they\u2019ll need a roll similar to the stretch immediately after the All-Star break when they won 10 of 14.<\/p>\n The success after the break started with the offense, which averaged 6.5 runs in the 14 games. That type of production has returned in the past week, with the Sox scoring at least seven runs in three of their last four through Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re taking quality at-bats and we trust the guy next to us and we have good results,\u201d infielder Miguel Vargas said Friday.<\/p>\n Manager Will Venable added Saturday: \u201cCollectively the guys and their effort to commit to getting on some fastballs, making good swing decisions, just running extremely hard and playing extremely hard, guys looking for bunts \u2014 doing all the things we\u2019ve asked these guys to do \u2014 they\u2019re really embracing those things and doing them at a high level.<\/p>\n \u201cJust the culmination of all those things has our offense in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n But it hasn\u2019t led to victories. The Sox won just once in that stretch, part of a larger period featuring 14 losses in 17 games since the strong start to the second half.<\/p>\n The Sox had surrendered at least nine runs in three of the last four games entering Saturday. The last seven had been particularly bumpy for the bullpen. Sox relievers allowed 26 runs (23 earned) in 21 innings for a major-league-worst 9.89 ERA in that span.<\/p>\n![\"Twins](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/CTC-L-sox-twins039.jpg\")
Twins shortstop Brooks Lee is congratulated by teammate Byron Buxton (25) after Lee scored in the seventh inning against the White Sox on Aug. 22, 2025, at Rate Field. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n