The White Sox lost to the Detroit Tigers last night, their 121st loss of the season and the most losses in Major League Baseball history, to become the Greatest Losers of All Time:
After enjoying a three-game sweep of the struggling Angels to avoid history in front of their disgruntled home fans, the Sox went back to their losing ways Friday, falling for the 121st time to set a modern-day major-league record on the third-to-last day of the season.
The Sox had shared the loss record with the 1962 Mets since Sunday, and, harboring hopes of sweeping the Tigers to avoid breaking the mark, they sent their best pitcher to face Detroit in hopes of extending their winning streak to four. Garrett Crochet, making his 32nd start in his first season as a starter, tossed four scoreless innings to do his part. The All-Star left-hander, who didn’t pitch more than four innings after June, struck out six, walked one and allowed four hits.
“No real emotions,” Crochet said. “Obviously, it sucks. We put ourselves in this position early on. We had a bad April [6-24 in March and April]. We just never dug ourselves out of that hole. We are where we are because of the way we played, which sucks. But that’s just all it is.”
The Sox will go into October finished with baseball and standing alone as the losingest team in the modern era. Only the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who were 20-134, lost more games.
So only one question remains: can they make it 123?