DETROIT — Andrew Benintendi hit a bouncer up the middle.
Detroit Tigers shortstop Trey Sweeney gloved it and tagged out Zach DeLoach on his way to second. Benintendi barely beat the throw to first, avoiding what would have been a game-ending double play.
It only delayed the inevitable. And when right fielder Wenceel Pérez tracked down Andrew Vaughn’s high fly while bumping into center fielder Parker Meadows, the Chicago White Sox found themselves on the wrong side of history.
The Sox reached the pinnacle of baseball infamy with record-breaking loss No. 121 on Friday, falling 4-1 to the Detroit Tigers in front of a sellout crowd of 44,435 at Comerica Park.
No team in Major League Baseball’s modern era has lost more games in a season than the 2024 White Sox.
The Sox surpassed the 1962 New York Mets, who went 40-120 in their expansion season. The Sox are 39-121 with two games remaining.
“It’s frustrating,” first baseman Gavin Sheets said. “I didn’t know how I’d feel during it. This whole time the difference in 120 and 121 isn’t a better season or more of a success. I was definitely more frustrated than I thought I would be when it happened.
“Winning three in a row (this week against the Los Angeles Angels), maybe we could do something special and ride it out and win (the final) six in a row and you start to believe in that and think maybe (the record is) not going to happen. And all of a sudden on the last out, you realize you’re part of the wrong side of history. It was a little more frustrating and it hurt a little bit more than I expected it to.”
The Sox saw their three-game winning streak come to an end, while the Tigers clinched their first postseason berth in 10 years with the victory. Vaughn walked back to the dugout as Tigers players rushed the field in celebration.
“It’s been an extremely difficult year for everybody,” Sheets said. “It’s been hard mentally, hard physically. I feel bad for everybody in this room to be a part of this. To see Detroit celebrating, that was us (making a playoff appearance in 2021), it’s frustrating. It doesn’t feel good.
“It doesn’t sit well with any of us. But unfortunately, it’s where we’re at right now. It’s everybody’s job in this room to make sure we move forward and never let this happen again.”
The Sox knew it wouldn’t be easy in 2024. Many preseason projections had them finishing last in the American League Central.
But no one could have imagined a year like this.
“The frustrating part is we are not where we want to be,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “It hasn’t been the year we wanted, and we know that.”
The Sox lost 22 of their first 25, had the most losses (71) at the All-Star break in MLB history, had an AL record-tying 21-game losing streak — one of three double-digit skids — and now hold the modern-day mark for defeats in a season.
“No real emotions,” starter Garrett Crochet said. “Obviously it sucks. We put ourselves in this position early on. We had a bad 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.”
Crochet, making his final start of an All-Star season in which he made the move from the bullpen to the rotation, was sharp again in his limited outing. The left-hander, who has had his workload monitored, allowed three hits, struck out six and walked one in four scoreless innings.
The Tigers scored twice in the fifth against reliever Jared Shuster — via a wild pitch and sacrifice fly by Matt Vierling. They added two more in the seventh on a run-scoring double by Riley Greene and a wild pitch by reliever Fraser Ellard.
DeLoach accounted for the lone Sox run, hitting his first major-league home run in the sixth.
The Sox had just three hits — a double and home run by DeLoach and a single by Dominic Fletcher — as they extended a franchise record with their 63rd road loss of the season.
Home or away hasn’t mattered for the Sox, who have a place — alone — in the record book.
“I think the frustration has been long before the number,” Sizemore said. “It is one of those things where you are not happy regardless, but I don’t know that I would feel any different if we were at 115 or 110. It’s still a frustrating year.
“So, we are just trying to build for next year and try to end on a positive any way we can. Just get back to playing the kind of baseball we want and putting together a good season.”