CHICAGO WHITE SOX LOSE 21ST STRAIGHT GAME, TIE AL RECORD

Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol reacts [+]
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OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Chicago White Sox lost their 21st straight game, tying American League record with a 5-1 defeat to the Oakland Athletics on Monday night as Max Schuemann hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in the fourth inning.

Chicago is on the longest losing streak since the 1988 Baltimore Orioles lost 21 in a row. The NL record since 1900 is held by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies, who lost 23 straight.

The major league low belongs to the 1889 Louisville Colonels, an American Association team that lost 26 consecutive games slide during a 27-111 season.

Chicago, which last won on July 10 in a doubleheader opener against Minnesota, dropped to 27-88 and is on pace to finish 38-124, which would be the most losses since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders of the National League went 20-134. The White Sox have been held to one run or none 32 times.

"We talk about it everyday, everybody knows what it is," Chicago manager Pedro Grifol said after the loss. "It's 21 in a row, it sucks, it's painful, it hurts, you name it. ... Like I said, it's not for lack of effort. Nobody wants to come out here and lose."

Measuring up against the rest of baseball, after the All-Star break, is even more dreary for the White Sox. Sixteen of the losses in the streak have come post-break, and according to ESPN Stats & Information research, every other team in the majors has at least four victories in that span.

"You just try to turn the page," outfielder Corey Julks said. "Look forward to the next day, bounce back, don't dwell on the loss, just try to learn from them and get better each day. ... We're just trying to rally as a team and find a way to get a win."

Former White Sox great Frank Thomas, a Hall of Fame first baseman, was on the team's postgame show on NBC Sports Chicago Monday, and said he would throw a postgame tantrum with reporters if he were managing this team.

"It's time to snap," Thomas said. "That's the only way through the players right now. Snap. I'm serious. I don't want to hear no more: `We're trying.′ No more: `They're working hard every day.′ No, it's time to snap. It's time to kick over the spread."

Thomas played for the White Sox from 1990 to 2005 as part of a 19-season career. Now 56, the two-time AL MVP hit 521 home runs, including 448 for Chicago. He was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2014.

"I'm not being nice. Kick the door. Slam the door! 'Get out of here! I'm tired of answering questions," Thomas suggested would be his reaction as manager. "'We've lost 21 in -- we're the laughing stock of baseball. You think I don't know that?'"

Tyler Nevin's first-inning sacrifice fly put the A's ahead, but Andrew Benintendi tied the score with an RBI single against JP Sears (9-8) in the fourth.

JJ Bleday doubled in the bottom half off Ky Bush (0-1), a 24-year-old left-hander making his big league debut, Zack Gelof walked and Darell Hernaiz was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Schuemann grounded a single between shortstop and third that bounced into left for a 3-1 lead.

Lawrence Butler added a sixth-inning homer against Chad Kuhl, his 16th home run this season. Gelof added a run in the eighth when he sprinted home from first when Jared Shuster's pitch bounced away from catcher Korey Lee as Schuemann struck out. Lee looked toward Gelof at third and threw to first baseman Andrew Vaughn for the out, and Gelof ran home as Vaughn's throw skipped past Lee.

Sears allowed three hits in seven innings with five strikeouts and a walk, improving to 5-1 in his last six decisions.

"Our whole plan coming into this series was to continue our focus," A's manager Mark Kotsay said, whose club just dropped a weekend series to the Los Angeles Dodgers. "Focus on the details of the game, play the game the way we know we're capable of, and we did that tonight."

Austin Adams and Tyler Ferguson finished a four-hitter that took just 2 hours, 15 minutes.

"We bounced back today aggainst a team that has been struggling lately," Schuemann said in his postgame, on-field interview on NBC Sports California. "So, it was important to come out here and not take them lightly. That was a big key for us."

Bush allowed three runs, two hits and five walks over four innings with three strikeouts. He played college baseball at Saint Mary's College in Moraga.

On Tuesday, the White Sox will give it another shot with rookie right-hander Jonathan Cannon (1-5, 4.11 ERA) on the mound, opposed by Oakland righty Ross Stripling (2-10, 5.64).

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

- ESPN News Services

MLB BANS TUCUPITA MARCANO FOR LIFE OF BETTING ON BASEBALL ⚾, FOUR OTHERS GET ONE-YEAR SUSPENSION

AP

 NEW YORK (AP) — San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano was banned from baseball for life for betting on the sport and four others were suspended for one year by Major League Baseball on Tuesday in the game’s biggest gambling scandal in decades.

MLB said Marcano placed 387 baseball bets totaling more than $150,000 in October 2022 and from last July through November with a legal sportsbook. He became the first active player in a century banned for life because of gambling.

Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly was suspended for one year for betting on baseball while in the minor leagues and three minor leaguers also were banned for one year for betting on big league games: pitchers Jay Groome of San Diego and Andrew Saalfrank of Arizona, and infielder José Rodríguez of Philadelphia. Each of those four players wagered under $1,000. Saalfrank and Rodríguez played previously in the majors.

“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules and policies governing gambling conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “The longstanding prohibition against betting on Major League Baseball games by those in the sport has been a bedrock principle for over a century. We have been clear that the privilege of playing in baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior that are legal for other people.”

Marcano is the first active major leaguer banned for life under the sport's gambling provision since New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O'Connell in 1924. Pete Rose, baseball's career hits leader, agreed to a lifetime ban in 1989 after an investigation concluded he bet on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team.

Major League Rule 21, posted in every clubhouse, states betting on any baseball game in which a player, umpire, league official or team employee has no duty to perform results in a one-year suspension. Betting on a game in which the person has a duty to perform results in a lifetime ban.

Marcano became the second North American athlete banned for gambling in recent months. The NBA gave Toronto's Jontay Porter a lifetime ban in April after concluding he disclosed confidential information to bettors and wagered on games, including on the Raptors to lose.

MLB said it was tipped off in March about the betting activity by a legal sports betting operator. None of the players punished played in any games on which they wagered, and all players denied to MLB they had inside information relevant to their bets or the games they gambled on – testimonies that MLB says align with the data received from the sportsbook.

In its announcement, MLB detailed the bets alleged for each player,

Marcano’s 387 baseball bets included international games and 231 MLB-related wagers for $87,319 between Oct. 16, 2022, and last Nov. 1. Twenty-five of those bets included wagers on Pirates games while he was on the team’s major league roster. Now 24, Marcano, has not played since tearing his right ACL last July 24 and was receiving medical treatment at PNC Park last year.

Marcano bet almost exclusively on the outcomes of games and lost all of his parlay bets involving the Pirates, winning just 4.3% of all of his MLB-related bets.

Marcano made his major league debut on April 1, 2021, and has a .217 average with five homers, 34 RBIs and seven stolen bases in 149 games. He has played in both the infield and outfield.

“While the thorough investigation revealed no evidence of any games being compromised, influenced or manipulated in any way in this case, protecting the integrity of our game is paramount,” the Pirates said in a statement.

The other four players did not bet on games involving their assigned teams.

Kelly placed 10 bets on nine major league games from Oct. 5-17, 2021, while a minor league player assigned to Houston's Triple-A Sugar Land farm team. The bets included wagers on outcomes, over/under on runs and an individual pitcher’s strikeout total. Three of the nine games involved the major league Astros. His wagers totaled $99.22 and resulted in $28.30 of winnings.

Kelly, 31, was 3-2 with a 2.59 ERA in 28 games this season, last pitching on Saturday at Atlanta. The former first-round draft pick appeared in 46 games over the past three seasons.

Groome, a 25-year-old who had been on a minor league injured list since mid-April, placed 32 MLB-related bets from July 22, 2020, through July 24, 2021, including 24 on the Boston Red Sox major league team while he was assigned to Boston's High-A team in Greenville, South Carolina. The sport detailed he wagered $453.74 on 30 MLB games and had a net loss of $433.54, receiving payouts on only two wagers. His betting included parlays.

Rodríguez, 23, has been at Double-A Reading this season. He placed 31 bets on baseball on Sept. 30, 2021, and from June 5 through July 30 in 2022, including 28 on MLB and three on college baseball. The total included seven involving the Chicago White Sox at the time he was assigned to their Double-A team in Birmingham, Alabama. Two of the White Sox bets involved outcomes and the others were on runs scored. He bet $749.09 on baseball, of which $724.09 was on MLB-related bets that included parlays.

Saalfrank, 26, pitched in 21 games for Arizona last year between the regular season and postseason, including three World Series games, and two this year before he was optioned to Triple-A Reno on May 1. He placed 29 baseball bets from Sept. 9 through Oct. 29 in 2021 and on March 9, 2022, including 28 on MLB and one parlay on college baseball. He placed four bets on the big league Diamondbacks while on the injured list of their Low A farm team. His baseball bets totaled $445.87 on baseball, including $444.07 on MLB, and lost $272.64 on MLB bets and $1.80 on the college wager. He won just five of 28 MLB bets, which included outcomes, runs and pitcher strikeouts.

- RONALD BLUM