Angels' futility reaches new heights with most embarrassing sweep of season vs. White Sox

For the better part of a decade now, the Los Angeles Angels have been easy targets for all MLB fans to mock. It has been a decade since this franchise made it to the postseason and eight years since they've had a winning record despite rostering Mike Trout for that entire time and Shohei Ohtani for most of it.

This week's series against the Chicago White Sox gave the Halos the opportunity to finally have the focus regarding dysfunctional baseball teams be on another team. The White Sox entered the series with 120 losses on the year, needing one more loss to set the modern-day MLB record for the most losses in a single season.

Not only did they fail to do that, but they set their own franchise record simultaneously, and not in a good way.

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Angels fail to hand White Sox embarrassing record, set their own instead

Had the Angels lost even one game to the now 39-120 White Sox, that would've been embarrassing. Losing twice to that team would've been even worse. Getting swept though? How does that even happen?

The Angels had the White Sox on the brink of the record in the series opener, leading 2-0 entering the bottom of the eighth inning thanks to seven shutout innings from Jack Kochanowicz. Rather than starting the eighth with Kochanowicz who had thrown just 82 pitches through those seven dominant frames, Ron Washington went with veteran Hunter Strickland to pitch the eighth.

Aided by this muffed pop-up from second baseman Jack Lopez, the White Sox tied the game at two. They'd take the lead the following batter. Los Angeles went down quietly in the top of the ninth and fell 3-2.

It appeared as if the Angels were going to blow another opportunity to win on Wednesday night after allowing the White Sox to get out to an early 2-0 lead and stay in front 3-2 after seven innings, but a Michael Stefanic suicide squeeze tied the game. These two bottom feeders wound up going to extras.

Despite having the ghost runner begin the tenth inning at second base and Logan O'Hoppe drawing a leadoff walk, they grounded into a crushing double play, setting themselves up to end the extra frame without a run. Sure enough, the White Sox would walk them off.

As embarrassing as those losses were, you'd think that the Angels would find a way to win the finale of the series with their All-Star, Tyler Anderson, on the mound. That couldn't have been further from the truth. Not only did the Angels fail to score a run against Chris Flexen, a pitcher who entered the day with a 2-15 record and an ERA over 5.00, but they allowed seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Anderson surrendered five of them, four of which were earned.

The White Sox hadn't scored seven runs in an inning this season. All it took was a meeting with the Angels for them to pull that off. They hadn't swept a series since April, which happened to be their only sweep of the year prior to this one. All it took was a meeting with the Angels for them to pull that off.

Not only did the Angels fail in three chances to hand the White Sox the modern-day record for losses in a single season, but they set their own franchise record with their 96th loss of the season. No, they aren't as bad as the White Sox, but they certainly played worse than the South Siders did in this series.

The Angels organization already had plenty to be embarrassed about based on recent history, but it's hard to envision a lower point than this. They'll presumably find a way, because they're the Angels, but all we can really say is poor Mike Trout.