DETROIT — The Chicago White Sox lost their major league record 121st game Friday night after the 1900s, falling 4-1 to the Detroit Tigers.
The White Sox broke the record of 120 set by the New York Mets in 1962 in their first season. The overall record was set in 1899 by the Cleveland Spiders with a record of 20-134.
The closest team to New York’s record was the 2003 Tigers, who won their final two games to finish with 119 losses. That remained the American League record until the White Sox reached 120 Sunday in San Diego.
After avoiding the record by sweeping the Los Angeles Angels at home, the White Sox lost to a Tigers team that clinched a playoff spot in front of 44,435 raucous fans.
Starter Garrett Crochet gave them a chance, finishing his season with four shutout innings, but the White Sox couldn’t score early and Jared Shuster allowed two runs in the fifth.
Zach DeLoach hit his first home run in the sixth, but Dominic Fletcher’s error in center field led to two more Tigers runs in the seventh.
The White Sox, who are last in the American League in runs scored and runs allowed, threatened the 120-loss mark since the start of the season with 25 defeats in their first 28 games.
Chicago was 15-48 after losing 14-2 to the Red Sox on June 6 – the Mets were 17-46 after 63 games – but won the next two games to start an 11-16 streak . That left them at 26-64, two games better than New York’s record after 90 games.
At this point, it looked like they might avoid matching the Tigers and Mets, but they lost 23 of their next 24 games, including a 20-game losing streak.
By the time they beat Athletics 5-1 on August 6, they were on their way to 124 losses.
Another 10-game losing streak, stretching from August to September, left them at 31-109 (.221). At this point, the question seemed to be whether they could keep total losses close to 125.
That seemed unlikely when they fell to 33-115 after a 2-0 home loss to the A’s on September 13. To avoid breaking the record, they needed seven wins in their last 12 games.
They came closer than anyone could have expected. They won the last two games against Oakland and the first game of a road series against the Angels.
A five-game losing streak followed and they tied the record against the Padres, but they came home to beat the Angels 14-5 in a three-game sweep. They finished 23-58 at home to avoid another record – the 59 home losses to the St. Louis Browns in 1939 and the Tigers in 2019.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
