Washington's bullpen has already blown 25 saves this season and is on pace to break one of the most infamous records from the White Sox's 2024 campaign.
The Chicago White Sox made baseball history in more ways than one during their dreadful 2024 season. With a 41-121 record, the White Sox lost more games than any team in Major League Baseball history.
For a record like that to be possible, a lot has to go wrong. And a lot of luck has to be working against you. While no team is going to come anywhere close to breaking that White Sox loss record in 2026, the Colorado Rockies are the worst team in baseball and aren't even on pace to lose 100 games.
There is, however, one White Sox record from 2024 that could be topped, and it would erase another piece of history from that black eye of a season.
Michael Kopech led the White Sox in saves in 2024 with nine. Chicago didn't have a full-time closer, and they didn't have many save opportunities. But one of the biggest reasons the White Sox finished with such a poor record was their inability to win close games and preserve late leads.
That 2024 team set an all-time record with 37 blown saves. But there might be another bullpen that's getting ready to one-up them.
The Philadelphia Phillies took three out of four games from the Washington Nationals last week, getting all of their wins in comeback fashion.
On Tuesday night, the Phillies scored 12 runs after the seventh inning, including eight in the ninth, propelling them to a 14-9 victory.
On Wednesday night, they were down to their final out when former White Sox outfielder Derek Hill launched a go-ahead two-run home run to give the Phillies a 5-4 win.
And on Thursday, they stormed back from an early 5-0 Nationals deficit with 10 runs after the sixth inning, winning the game 10-5.
The Nationals blew three saves in that series, then another against the Orioles on Saturday. They now have 25 blown saves as a team, despite being just past the halfway point of the 2026 season.
Washington had played 84 games entering Sunday. They're currently on pace to shatter the White Sox's record of 37 blown saves.
I'm not sure we'll ever see another team lose more than 121 games in a season. The White Sox may carry that burden forever. But even if it's just one record, the White Sox made history for all the wrong reasons, and it's nice to see another team taking up that mantle.
