With a winning-streak-snapping loss to the A's, the White Sox are now 0-4 this season when their starter goes the distance, a statistic that seems about as unlikely as them going 0-4 in games in which they hit a grand slam.

The Sox remarkably poor performance in well-pitched games sent me searching B-R's Play Index to see what the record was for complete game losses. Not surprisingly, the Sox have no shot at setting the (retrosheet era) record. As Hawk would say, it's a changed game. They do, however, have an outside shot at making a run at the more modern wild card era record of 9 complete game losses held by the 1998 Mariners. Those Mariners had a special contribution from Jeff Fassero, who notched 6 complete game losses by himself. Only 3 teams have had more than Fassero's 6 since '98.

Unlike those Mariners, the Sox have spread their tough-luck losses around, with all 4 going to different starters. If I was John Danks, who already owns some of the worst run-support in the American League, I'd be nervous.

With the bullpen hurting--Bobby Jenks has a side or a non-throwing arm injury and Boone Logan has contracted a case of sporadic invisibility--Javier Vazquez was called upon to take one for the team, because, you know, the pen is only 7 men deep. Vazquez appeared to be up to the task early, striking out 7 of the first 9 he faced, but when the Sox offense was unable to capitalize on a 2 on, nobody out situation, Vazquez chose the wrong time to get a little wild. He hit Kurt Suzuki--what's Dony Lucy doin' these days--then threw Jack Cust a high do-nothing slider that went really high... and far. Vazquez had made two mistakes in the span of about a minute, and the Sox found themselves tied.

Another homer, the second Athletics hit of the game, by Donnie Murphy in the 5th put the A's up for good as the Sox were unable to mount yet another comeback against the AL ERA leader, and a guy who doesn't throw strikes.