White Sox rookie right-hander Jonathan Cannon stood up and halted losing streaks of 12, 14 and 21 games this season.
His task on a damp Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field was even more formidable — to make a stand against history.
Taking a 36-120 record into their game against the 63-93 Angels, the ill-fated Sox avoided breaking an all-but-inevitable record for most losses in a season in the modern era — held by the 1962 Mets (40-120) — by rallying for three runs in the eighth inning for a 3-2 victory. It marked the first time in 95 games the Sox won after trailing after seven innings.
Cannon couldn’t stay out of an embarrassing 2024 Sox snapshot when a pop-up fell among him and three teammates in the fifth inning, starting a steady stream of ‘‘Sell the team’’ chants and boos from the home crowd that continued intermittently and could be heard even after the Sox were in the handshake line celebrating their victory.
But Cannon did everything he could by pitching six innings of three-hit ball with seven strikeouts and one walk, exiting a scoreless duel with Angels right-hander Jack Kochanowicz.
‘‘It’s been a long season,’’ Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi said. ‘‘I think that people here tonight were maybe trying to see history. But they’re going to have to wait one more day.’’
Eric Wagaman’s RBI double against Gus Varland in the seventh gave the Angels a 1-0 lead, and Jack Lopez’s first career home run against Prelander Berroa in the eighth made it 2-0. By that time, the ‘‘Sell the team” chants had broken out multiple times at a place where the Sox’ .266 home winning percentage (21-58) is the second-worst in history, behind that of the 1939 St. Louis Browns (.234, 18-59).
‘‘We are not happy either,’’ interim manager Grady Sizemore said. ‘‘I get the frustration, and I understand where they are coming from. They want to see wins, and they want to see them now. We want to bring those wins. We are not upset with that. We get where they are coming from.’’
Consecutive doubles by Zach DeLoach and pinch hitter Bryan Ramos in the eighth cut the Angels’ lead to 2-1, and second baseman Lopez’s misplay on Luis Robert Jr.’s pop fly that fell for a single enabled the Sox to tie the score. Benintendi followed with an RBI single that gave the Sox a 3-2 lead.
A paid crowd of 17,606, decent by Sox standards for a rainy school night in September, was supportive early on at a park in which the Sox had lost 28 of their previous 31 games, including a franchise-record 16-game home losing streak from Aug. 13 through Sept. 13.
But the tone turned abruptly and loudly when Mickey Moniak’s pop-up fell among Cannon, catcher Chuckie Robinson and corner infielders Gavin Sheets and Miguel Vargas with one out in the fifth. Cannon called for it but shouldn’t have as the pitcher, then didn’t make a play on it.
Publicly, the players said they understood the fans’ frustration with a season that follows 101 losses in 2023, but at least one privately called the booing bad form after the team snapped a five-game losing streak.
Cannon, who at the end of his first season admitted to being ‘‘tired and sore, like everyone else,’’ was pulled after 78 pitches before his last scheduled start Sunday in Detroit.
‘‘At one point or another, we were all baseball fans and had our team growing up and were [ticked] off when they were bad, so we understand where they’re coming from,’’ Cannon said. ‘‘But I thought it was a good crowd tonight, and they were behind us for a lot of it.’’
Cannon has displayed some moxie for a rookie, earning a three-inning save June 7 against the Red Sox to stop a 14-game losing streak, getting the victory to stop a 12-game skid Sept. 4 in Baltimore and putting an end to the Sox’ AL-record 21-game losing streak Aug. 6 in Oakland.
There would be no record on this night.
‘‘This feels like a little extra win,’’ Benintendi said. ‘‘Whatever happens, happens, and I think everybody in here doesn’t want it to happen. But it’s baseball.’’