Chicago White Sox fans have had to endure several consecutive underperforming seasons. The team recently lost its weekend series to the Miami Marlins after coughing up leads in the later innings of back to back games.
On Sunday, the White Sox led the Marlins 5-1 entering the eighth inning, and fans were justifiably apprehensive about whether or not the team would be able to close out the game. The team called upon reliever Keynan Middleton to maintain the lead, but Marlins slugger Jorge Soler hit his second solo home run of the afternoon to cut the White Sox lead to three.
“Now Soler in a four-run game can really not hurt you a whole bunch,” White Sox TV voice Jason Benetti said on the broadcast. “In the air to left, Benintendi back and those runs look even bigger. Soler, deep for the second time today, it’s 5-2.”
Later that inning, Garrett Cooper hit a solo shot of his own to pull the Marlins within two runs, and in the ninth inning, a homer from Jean Segura and two-run double by Bryan De La Cruz gave Miami the lead.
Benetti started the problems according to Mike Mulligan.
“Even if that thought went through your head, why would you say that out loud?,” the 670 The Score morning host said during the show’s transition segment. “Why would you curse the White Sox with the ‘Malecki’ at that moment?”
The White Sox were beginning to pick up traction after a slow start to the season, taking two out of three games on the road against the New York Yankees. The team is 22-17 after going 7-21 in April, and has won seven of its last 12 series, leading sports fans to wonder whether Benetti’s ‘broadcaster jinx’ is the start of another tumultuous stretch. Mulligan spoke with White Sox color commentator Steve Stone after the game and expressed his sentiment towards Benetti.
“I said, ‘Well that began it for me. That ruined the day right there,’” Mulligan said. “I knew the minute he said that; the minute he gave that words – that he had ruined the game.”
Afternoon co-host Dan Bernstein was playing golf and was told by a friend that the White Sox were winning their afternoon contest 5-1. Shortly thereafter, that same person disclosed that the team had lost the game, leaving Bernstein incredulous as to what could have happened for the outcome to turn the other way.
“We got back to the clubhouse just in time for the postgame to start, and there’s Ozzie [Guillen] talking,” Bernstein exasperatedly recalled. “I’m like, ‘Come on,’ and then they show all the highlights.”
Bernstein’s co-host, Laurence Holmes, had to leave The Score studios quickly after his show Friday and offered to record the promo for Monday’s show from home. After seeing the Cubs take two out of three games on the West Coast against the San Francisco Giants and the White Sox winning the rubber match of their series 5-1, he figured it would culminate into a good weekend for Chicago baseball. From previous disappointment and experience with the White Sox, however, he wanted to record an alternate version just in case and informed producer Adam Studzinski.
“I said, ‘I think I’m going to have to give you a different option for the promo,’” Holmes said. “[Studs is] like, ‘Oh, okay.’ So I gave him the option of it not being a great weekend for the White Sox because they end up losing two games. As soon as I sent it to Studs, everything went to ‘bleep.’ You could feel that things weren’t quite right.”
