White Sox Lose 100th Game As Yankees Spoil Jonathan Cannon's Return
In this story:
Returning to the White Sox from Triple-A, there was no easing back into things for Jonathan Cannon.
He entered Wednesday's game against the New York Yankees in a difficult situation, replacing opener Fraser Ellard with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the first. Cannon's first test came against Paul Goldschmidt, and he struck out the seven-time All-Star with a 97 mph fastball.
The rest of Cannon's outing wouldn't go as well, though. In the 8-1 loss, he gave up a three-run home run to Aaron Judge and hits to Goldschmidt and Jazz Chisholm Jr. that put the Yankees ahead 5-1 by the end of his appearance.
Taking the loss, Cannon finished with 4.1 innings, six hits, five earned runs, one walk and six strikeouts. The defeat dropped the White Sox record to 58-100, their third straight 100-loss season. The White Sox have seven 100-loss seasons in franchise history, and four have come since 2018.
Aaron Judge reaches 50 home runs for the fourth time in his career, which ties an MLB record! pic.twitter.com/rhzQOPpVLn
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) September 25, 2025
Cannon threw 75 pitches on Wednesday, likely his last appearance of an up-and-down season with just four games left. The 2022 third-round pick had some bright moments in his second Major League season, like a five-inning shutout in his first outing and four straight quality starts from April 26 to May 13.
But Cannon struggled in the second half, allowing 28 earned runs in 18.2 innings across his final five major-league outings from July 23 through Wednesday. In between those appearances, he was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte but didn't fare much better with 19 earned runs in 31.2 innings, a 5.40 ERA.
Last week in Chicago, White Sox senior advisor to pitching discussed some of the adjustments Cannon has attempted to make.
"I think any young starter there's always an initial impact and then the league figures out how to adjust back," Bannister said. "And so for Jonathan, it's really –– he's gonna be a sinker baller, we need more ground ball percentage because we need to suppress the homers. So you just saw as they stacked more lefties, more homers this year relative to last year. So those have been the conversations with him."
"He's iterating through a couple ideas to get that ground ball percentage higher," Bannister continued. "He ran it in the mid 50s up through Double-A. He Made some changes in the 2024 spring training with his grips, and you've seen his groundball rate kind of run at 38%. So if he is gonna pitch in that style and not have a high K rate ceiling, we've just been talking about pitch mix and arsenal usage and shapes in order to get that ground ball percentage higher, where he can suppress home runs at a consistent rate and kind of be that Major League starter that we know he is."
Related stories on the Chicago White Sox
- ROSTER MOVES: Mike Tauchman and Wikelman Gonzalez are headed to the injured list, while Jonathan Cannon and Derek Hill join the White Sox for the home stretch. CLICK HERE
- LEFTIES IMPRESSING: White Sox senior advisor to pitching Brian Bannister recently discussed the productive seasons of Shane Murphy and Jake Palisch. CLICK HERE
- LOSS EMPHASIZES NEED: The White Sox are 14-35 in one-run games after Tuesday's 3-2 loss to the Yankees, in part because they don't have an established closer. CLICK HERE
- WHO'S CATCHING IN 2026?: The White Sox have important decisions to make regarding their catching trio of Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero and Korey Lee. CLICK HERE
Jack Ankony is the beat writer for “Chicago White Sox on SI.” He has been with the Sports Illustrated network since 2022. He graduated from Indiana University's Media School with a degree in journalism in 2022. Follow Jack on Twitter @ankony_jack
Follow ankony_jack