MILWAUKEE —
The July 29 trade that sent Michael Kopech from the Chicago White Sox to the Dodgers was the baseball equivalent of going from Death Valley to the summit of Mt. Whitney for the hard-throwing reliever.
The White Sox were 15 games into an eventual 21-game losing streak, with a 27-82 record and 38½ games back in the American League Central, the day Kopech was acquired by the Dodgers in a three-team deal with Chicago and St. Louis.
And with a 29-93 record entering Thursday, the White Sox could challenge the 1962 New York Mets, who lost 120 games, for modern-era futility.