White Sox suffer record 121st defeat of season

The Chicago White Sox broke the modern-day record for most losses in a Major League Baseball season with their 121st defeat of 2024.

They claimed the unwanted landmark with a 4-1 defeat at the Detroit Tigers.

"It's not the year we wanted," said Grady Sizemore, who took over as interim manager after Pedro Grifol was sacked in August.

Pitcher Garrett Crochet said: "Obviously it sucks."

The White Sox equalled the New York Mets' record from 1962 with their 120th loss of the season on Sunday.

Fans flocked to Chicago's Guaranteed Rate Field this week to see the White Sox break the record, but they won three successive games against the Los Angeles Angels.

Victory for Detroit at Comerica Park secured their first American League play-off berth since 2014.

After the game the White Sox posted a picture on social media of a computer with a list of "Things we'd rather do than read comments" and a photo of the team mascot sitting against a wall with the caption "slams laptop shut 'til tomorrow".

They have two more games against the Tigers in Detroit before the season ends.

The Cleveland Spiders lost 134 of their 154 matches in 1899, before what is now known as the modern era began the following year.

"It's not the numbers that we want," said Sizemore. "But that doesn't mean it's a total loss. We can build from this. We can learn from this and get better."

White Sox starting pitcher Crochet threw four scoreless innings, striking out six batters and issuing one walk.

"No real emotions," he said. "We put ourselves in this position early on. We are where we are because of the way we played. But that's just all it is."

This season the White Sox set a franchise record by losing 14 games in a row.

They broke that with a 21-game run of defeats that tied the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for the longest in American League history.

The final MLB play-off spots will be decided this weekend. You can watch all the key moments on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app as 15 games take place simultaneously from 20:00 BST on Sunday.