White Sox set post-1900s, major league record for losses in a season with 121

The Chicago White Sox lost their major league-record 121st game Friday night, falling 4-1 to the Detroit Tigers.

The White Sox broke the post-1900 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 20-134 record.

"Honestly, there's nothing for me right now," manager Grady Sizemore said. "I think the frustration came long before this number. This was one of those things you can't be happy about, but I don't know if I would feel any different if we were at 115 or 110."

The closest any team had come 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 hit 120 on Sunday in San Diego.

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 gave up two runs in the fifth.

Zach DeLoach hit his first homer in the sixth, but Dominic Fletcher's error in centre 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, have threatened the 120-loss barrier since starting the season with 25 losses 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 run. That left them at 26-64, two games better than New York's record after 90 games.

At that point, it looked as if they could 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 the Athletics 5-1 on Aug. 6, they were on pace for 124 losses.

Another 10-game losing streak, stretching from August into September left them at 31-109 (.221). At that point, the question seemed to be whether they could keep the total losses from approaching 125.

That didn't look likely when they fell to 33-115 after a 2-0 home loss to the A's on Sept. 13. To avoid breaking the record, they needed seven wins in their final 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 matched the record against the Padres, but they returned home to outscore the Angels 14-5 in a three-game sweep. They finished 23-58 at home to avoid another record - the 59 home losses by the 1939 St. Louis Browns and the 2019 Tigers.

Tigersend decade-long postseason drought

The Tigers ended a decade-long postseason drought.

Detroit hasbeen on a tear, winning six straight and 10 of 11 to surge into the playoffs and eliminate the defending AL Central champion Minnesota Twins from the race.

AL Cy Young Award favorite Tarik Skubal leads Detroit's rotation and Jason Foley has become a reliable closer in a strong bullpen.

Riley Greene, an All-Star outfielder, is the team's top player in a lineup that gets timely hitting from the top to the bottom.

Taking advantage of playing a historically bad team, Detroit broke a scoreless tie in the fifth inning Friday night. Jake Rogers scored when Jared Shuster was charged with a wild pitch even though the ball didn't hit the dirt just below catcher Korey Lee's glove.

Greene put Detroit ahead 3-1 with a double in the seventh, and Chicago helped the home team's cause again later in the inning when Fraser Ellard threw the team's third wild pitch of the night.

Detroit went into the season expecting to contend for a spot in the playoffs in a second full season under president of basketball operations Scott Harris and A.J. Hinch's fourth year as manager.

Ohtani steals 57th base, passes Suzuki

Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani stole base No. 57 in the second inning Friday night against Colorado to pass Ichiro Suzuki for the most in a single season by a Japanese-born player.

Ohtani has now successfully stolen 34 straight bases without getting caught. It's the second-longest streak in franchise history, trailing only Davey Lopes' 38 in a row in 1975.

Ohtani is 57 of 61 on stolen-base attempts the season. He also has an National League-leading 53 homers as he chases a possible Triple Crown. He entered the night with a .305 average, which trailed Luis Arraez (.312) and Marcell Ozuna (.310)

In addition, Ohtani is second in franchise history with 401 total bases. Babe Herman set the record of 416 in 1930.