As the White Sox head into their off day before continuing their road trip to Cleveland to face the Guardians on Tuesday, their 2–7 record reflects a rocky start to the 2025 season.
They’ve lost five straight and were just swept in Detroit.
Some troubling trends have emerged from this terrible start to the season.
Los Angeles Angels series: Strong starting pitching emerges, but the team misses chances to win more games.
The White Sox opened at home with promising rotation work.
Sean Burke, Jonathan Cannon, and Davis Martin combined for 17 innings without giving up an earned run through the first three games.
Despite this historic start, the Sox dropped the series. Game 2 was decided by a wild pitch from Mike Clevinger that allowed Jorge Soler to advance to third, followed by a two-out infield single from Yoán Moncada to score the game’s only run.
In Game 3, Cam Booser surrendered a go-ahead solo homer to Kyren Paris in the eighth inning after a rain delay, sealing the series loss.
The lineup excelled in the opener, scoring eight runs behind a trio of home runs from Austin Slater, Andrew Benintendi, and Lenyn Sosa.
In Game 2, however, the White Sox were shut out by right-hander José Soriano, managing just two hits. Game 3 followed a similar script: Nick Maton homered to open the first inning, and the Sox added a run with some situational hitting, but the bats went silent the rest of the way.
Twins Series: Martin Pérez shines, Shane Smith debuts, Sox begin to show trends
The offense followed a similar script to Game 1 of the Angels series, jumping on Chris Paddack early with another trio of home runs—this time by Andrew Vaughn, Andrew Benintendi, and Michael A. Taylor—to build a quick lead.
However, the Sox didn’t score after the third inning. Martín Pérez added to the team’s historic early-season scoreless streak with six hitless innings in his White Sox debut, extending the mark to 23 innings. Rookie Mike Vasil allowed the only hits of the night in his MLB debut, but the bullpen held firm as Chicago earned a shutout and improved to 2–2.
Shane Smith delivered a solid MLB debut, tossing 5.2 innings with two hits, two earned runs, four walks, and three strikeouts.
He extended the team’s earned run-less streak to 28.2 innings—the longest start to a season in the expansion era (since 1961)—before two runs scored after he exited were credited to him.
Offensively, the Sox followed a familiar pattern with some early situational hitting, including another Nick Maton home run, but didn’t score past the fifth inning. The bullpen again failed to hold up, with Penn Murfee giving up three runs without recording an out and Jordan Leasure later surrendering a late home run to Harrison Bader that sealed the loss in Game 2.
Sean Burke took the mound in the series finale, looking to help the Sox secure a series win and climb back to .500, but Minnesota jumped on him early.
Byron Buxton’s first-inning home run put the Twins in control early. Burke was pulled in the fifth inning after a rough outing. While the bullpen held things down the rest of the way, the offense struggled to generate momentum.
Brooks Baldwin hit his first home run of the season for the Sox's lone run, but Chicago couldn’t string together anything beyond six scattered hits. Pablo López, much like José Soriano in the Angels series, kept the Sox lineup off balance. The offense continued to falter with runners on base, and Chicago again dropped the series to start 2–4 on the year.