The White Sox will try to avoid tying an unfortunate record on Sunday

It has to do with their recent run-scoring futility

The White Sox are on the cusp of history! However, they'd very much prefer that not to be the case! What are we talking about? Come with us, won't you?

Here's how the Sox's final game before the All-Star break went:

And here's how their first game back from the All-Star break went, on Friday:

And here's how Saturday night's game went:

So that's three straight shutouts at the hands of, one must note, opponents somewhat south of awe-inspiring. Stated another way, the White Sox haven't scored since the third inning on July 9. That's a span of 32 innings. The franchise record for most consecutive shutout innings on offense is 39 back in 1968, which of course was the Year of the Pitcher.

Now for that bit of history involved. With that Saturday night suffocation at the hands of Matt Shoemaker, the White Sox became the 132nd team to have been shut out in at least three straight games since 1913 (the back end of searchable data in the Baseball-Reference play index).

The record since 1913? It's four straight, and said mark is shared by nine teams: the 1992 Cubs, the 1985 Braves, the 1968 Cubs, the 1966 Astros, the 1964 Senators, the 1963 Astros, the 1958 Senators, the 1931 Reds, and the 1913 Browns.

So on Sunday when the White Sox oppose Jered Weaver and the Angels in Anaheim, they'll try to avoid becoming the 10th team in modern history to be shut out four times in a row. For what it's worth, Weaver last tossed a shutout on June 19 against the Athletics.

Overall, the White Sox's offense has indeed been a bad one, as this season they rank 13th in the AL in OPS and runs scored. This, though, is a notable drought even by those standards.