August 23, 1906: Roy Patterson, Frank Isbell lead White Sox to 19th consecutive victory

On August 23, 1906, the red-hot Chicago White Sox faced the Washington Nationals in the U.S. capital looking to prolong a remarkable string of consecutive wins. Roy Patterson tossed a complete-game seven-hitter, and Frank Isbell chipped in with three singles and an RBI. Both performances helped give the White Sox a 4-1 victory and extended their streak to 19 games, a total that remained the American League record for close to a century.

The White Sox had been mired in fourth place, 7½ games behind the league-leading and defending AL champion Philadelphia Athletics, after losing to the sad-sack Boston Americans on August 1. But White Sox pitchers tossed shutout victories in the next three games against Boston.1 Chicago then won five straight from the Athletics and three more from the pennant-contending New York Highlanders. The 17-game homestand concluded with a nine-inning scoreless tie against New York.2

The White Sox kept winning on the road, taking another three games from Boston and four more from the Highlanders. The 18 straight wins vaulted the White Sox into first place with a 68-43-2 record, 4½ games ahead of the Athletics. The Nationals were seventh with a 43-66-1 mark.

Patterson had thrown shutouts in the third and seventh games of Chicago’s winning streak, and he entered the series opener in Washington having tossed 21 consecutive scoreless innings.3 The 29-year-old right-hander had won his last four decisions, raising his record to 8-6.

In contrast, Washington starter Cy Falkenberg (10-14) had lost his last five decisions. At 6-foot-5 and just 180 pounds, Falkenberg was the tallest pitcher in the big leagues.4 The 26-year-old righty battled control problems early in his career, and in 1906 he led the majors in wild pitches and tied for the league lead in walks.

The 4,200 fans in attendance, enduring a sweltering Thursday afternoon,5 gave the White Sox a “royal reception” for their impressive winning streak when they came onto the field.6 The crowd also cheered respected umpire Silk O’Loughlin when he first appeared,7 although their support for him was short-lived.

Neither team scored in the first three innings, as Patterson limited the Nationals to three hits and Falkenburg scattered two hits and three walks.

Washington’s normally reliable third baseman Lave Cross was charged with a throwing error on Jiggs Donahue’s grounder leading off the fourth.8 After Patsy Dougherty sacrificed Donahue to second, Dougherty advanced to third on catcher Billy Sullivan’s infield single. According to the Washington Times, Falkenberg picked Sullivan off first base by a wide margin. But O’Loughlin – working the game solo − called Sullivan safe, much to the chagrin of the fans.9 The disputed call became even more contentious when Donahue tagged up and scored on third baseman Lee Tannehill’s long fly ball.10

The 40-year-old Cross, who broke into the big leagues in 1887 with the Louisville Colonels, singled to open the bottom of the fourth. One out later, right fielder Charlie Hickman bounced into a force out at second. Nationals 27-year-old player-manager Jake Stahl, hitting just .203 in what was the worst season of his big-league career,11 tripled to center field, scoring Hickman. Stahl’s blast tied the game, 1-1, and snapped Patterson’s streak of 24 consecutive scoreless innings.

Falkenberg walked Chicago player-manager Fielder Jones with one out in the fifth. After second baseman Isbell singled, George Davis drove in Jones with a bad-hop single over the head of first baseman Stahl and Isbell advanced to third.12 When Donahue fouled out to Stahl, Davis tagged up and took off for second, drawing a high throw that nearly went over the head of rookie shortstop Dave Altizer and allowed Isbell, who had also tagged up, to race home safely.13 Davis was erased in the ensuing rundown, ending the inning. The clever tactic—Dougherty was on deck with a .215 batting average—gave the White Sox a 3-1 lead.

Pitching with the lead again, Patterson posted the first one-two-three frame of the contest in the bottom of the fifth.

Chicago tacked on a run in the seventh. Right fielder Ed Hahn reached on a one-out single and went to second on a passed ball. After Jones fouled out, Isbell lined a single to center for his third hit of the game, scoring Hahn.

Falkenberg settled down and retired the final seven White Sox batters in the game.

Patterson held Washington to only one hit in innings five through eight.14 In the bottom of the ninth, Hickman slammed a one-out double off the center-field wall for his third hit of the game. It was all the offense the Nationals could muster, as Patterson retired Stahl and rookie pinch-hitter Howard Wakefield to nail down Chicago’s 19th win in a row.15 The 4-1 victory moved the White Sox 5½ games ahead of the Athletics and 7 in front of the third-place Highlanders and Cleveland Naps.

Despite being dubbed the Hitless Wonders for their league-worst .230 team batting average, the 1906 White Sox still cobbled together the AL’s third-best offense by leading the league in walks, hit-by-pitches, and sacrifices, and being the most difficult team to strike out. During the White Sox’ historic winning streak, they outscored the opposition 100-24. As a testament to its small-ball skills, Chicago averaged 5.3 runs on just 7.6 hits per game.16

The Pale Hose used just five pitchers during the streak; starters failed to go the distance just twice.17 Twenty-five-year-old Ed Walsh enjoyed a breakout performance, winning all seven of his starts, tossing five shutouts, and allowing just two runs in 63 innings pitched.18 Doc White, en route to posting a league-leading 1.52 ERA, threw a pair of shutouts and won each of his five starts, while Patterson won three games and surrendered only one run in 29 innings pitched.19 “[Fielder] Jones’s flingers have rounded to such rare form as to make them the most valuable bunch of gunners in the country, not excepting the artillery corps of the Chicago Cubs,” raved the Washington Post.20

The White Sox hit just .240 during the streak, but a higher slugging percentage than normal helped boost their run production.21 As was the case throughout the season, shortstop Davis, a future Hall of Famer, led the way offensively. He hit .290 with a team-leading 13 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. A pair of outfielders whose contracts had been purchased from the Highlanders earlier in the season, Dougherty and Hahn, made significant contributions during the streak.22 Dougherty led the White Sox with eight extra-base hits and trailed only Davis with nine RBIs. Hahn, Chicago’s leadoff hitter for all 19 victories, led the team with 14 runs scored.

The second game of the Chicago-Washington series was rained out on August 24 and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader the next day. The White Sox took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth of the first game with Walsh on the mound for his third inning of relief.23 The Nationals shocked the White Sox by torching Walsh for five consecutive hits, snapping Chicago’s streak with a 5-4 walk-off victory.24

The White Sox’ lead in the standings dissolved when the Highlanders reeled off 15 consecutive victories from August 29 to September 8, 10 of which came against tail-enders Washington and Boston. At the close of play on September 23, Chicago was in second place, one game behind the Highlanders. The White Sox won seven of their next eight games and clinched the pennant on October 3, an offday.25 Chicago finished with a 93-58-3 record, three games ahead of the second-place Highlanders.26

The White Sox were considered heavy underdogs when they faced the 116-win Chicago Cubs in an all-Chicago World Series. To the surprise of many, the White Sox won the series in six games, largely because of their outstanding pitching. The Pale Hose used just four pitchers in the series: Walsh, Nick Altrock, White, and Frank Owen, all of whom contributed to the 19-game winning streak. (Patterson’s season ended on September 8 because of arm problems.27) White Sox pitchers limited the vaunted Cubs offense to just eight earned runs in the World Series, rendering the South Siders’ .198 team batting average moot.28

Chicago’s 19-game winning streak stood as the major-league record (since 1901) until the New York Giants won 26 consecutive games in 1916. The White Sox retained the AL record until the 2002 Oakland Athletics won 20 games in row.

As of the start of the 2026 season, the 1916 Giants still held the NL record and the AL record was 22 wins in a row by the 2017 Cleveland Indians. The White Sox’ 1906 streak, which was tied by the 1947 New York Yankees, ranked as the fifth longest in the NL or AL since 1901.29

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Stathead.com, and the SABR biographies of Roy Patterson, Frank Smith, and Jake Stahl. Unless otherwise noted, all play-by-play information for the first five innings of this game was taken from the article “Comiskey’s Squad Takes Lead” on page 1 of the August 23, 1906, Sporting Extra edition of the Chicago Daily News, and play-by-play information for the remainder of the game was based on the article “Chicago Outplayed Nationals in Yesterday’s Game” on page 9 of the August 24, 1906, edition of the Washington Evening Star.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1190608230.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1906/B08230WS11906.htm

Photo credit

Roy Patterson, courtesy of the Detroit Public Library.

Notes

1 The shutouts were tossed by Doc White, Ed Walsh, and Roy Patterson.

2 Tie games were not suspended or replayed at the time, but player statistics counted. Ties do not end a winning streak in baseball. Chicago went 15-1-1 on its 17-game homestand, which began on July 27 and wrapped up on August 13.

3 Patterson had the distinction of throwing the inaugural pitch and earning the first win in American League history, kickstarting a 20-win season in his rookie year of 1901.

4 The only other 6-foot-5 player in the majors in 1906 was Cincinnati Reds catcher Larry McLean.

5 The daytime high was 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 Celsius).

6 “Comiskey’s Squad Takes Lead,” Chicago Daily News, August 23, 1906: 1.

7 “Nationals Beaten; Sox Break Record,” Washington Times, August 24, 1906: 8.

8 Cross had the highest fielding percentage (.952) among qualified third basemen in the AL.

9 “Nationals Beaten; Sox Break Record.”

10 “Chicago Outplayed Nationals in Yesterday’s Game,” Washington Evening Star, August 24, 1906: 9.

11 Stahl was in his second season as Washington’s player-manager. The young skipper had a stressful season in 1906. Stahl’s close friend and teammate Joe Cassidy died in March, and when the Nationals fell out of the pennant race, he became “consumed with trying to right the fast-sinking team.” Washington finished in seventh place with nine fewer wins than in 1905. Stahl finished the 1906 season with negative Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement (bWAR) and was stripped of his managerial duties.

12 “Sox Break Big-League Record, Winning Again,” Washington Post, August 24, 1906: 18.

13 “Chicago Outplayed Nationals in Yesterday’s Game.”

14 The author deduced this from the play-by-play in the Chicago Daily News and the box score.

15 Wakefield had a son in 1921, Dick Wakefield, who went on to become the major leagues’ first bonus baby.

16 The averages exclude the nine-inning scoreless tie during the 19-game winning streak. The White Sox averaged 3.7 runs and 7.4 hits per game for the entire season.

17 The two games without a complete game were started by Roy Patterson (August 16) and Frank Owen (August 17). The five pitchers combined for a stunning 0.824 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched).

18 Walsh had a breakout season in 1906 thanks to the development of a devastating spitball. He won 11 straight decisions from June 30 to August 22 and finished the season 17-13 with a 1.88 ERA. Walsh tossed a major-league-leading 10 shutouts.

19 The two other pitchers to take to the mound in the 19-game winning streak were Frank Owen and Nick Altrock. Owen won three games, completed three of his four starts, and surrendered 11 runs in 29 innings pitched. Nick Altrock earned the win in his only appearance, an eight-inning relief stint against the lowly Boston Americans on August 16. The game story in the Chicago Tribune reported that Altrock “had been out of form for some days.” He had lost four straight starts just before the winning streak began. “White Sox Enjoy a Batting Bee,” Chicago Tribune, August 17, 1906: 10.

20 “Sox Break Big-League Record, Winning Again.”

21 The White Sox had a slash line of .230 (BA) / .301 (OBP) / .286 (SLG) during the season and .240 / .310 / .324 during the winning streak.

22 The White Sox purchased Hahn’s contract from the Highlanders on May 10. Dougherty’s contract was purchased on June 6.

23 Frank Smith started for Chicago. It was his first appearance since July 12—he was kept out of the rotation so he could work on controlling his spitball. Smith gave up two runs on six hits and one walk in six innings, striking out five batters. He was removed after giving up two runs, cutting Chicago’s lead to 3-2.

24 “Washington Stops Winning Streak of Chicago White Sox, Washington Post, August 26, 1906: 1.

25 Chicago clinched the pennant when New York lost the second game of a twin bill on October 3 against Philadelphia.

26 The Nationals finished in 7th place with a 55-95-1 record, 37½ games behind the White Sox.

27 Patterson ended the season 10-7 with a 2.09 ERA (121 ERA+). He made only 19 more big-league appearances because of arm issues and was sent down to the American Association’s Minneapolis Millers in 1908. Patterson pitched in the minor leagues until 1922 when he was 45 years old.

28 The White Sox committed 15 errors in the World Series, resulting in 10 unearned runs. The Cubs hit .196 in the series.

29 As of the start of the 2026 season, the third longest winning streak was 21 games by the 1935 Chicago Cubs. The fourth longest was 20 games by the 2002 Oakland Athletics.