DETROIT — The White Sox held it off for as long as they could.
But there’s no stopping these red-hot Tigers.
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.
A 4-1 loss before a celebrating sold-out crowd at Comerica Park clinched a playoff berth for the Tigers (86-74), who have won as many games (39) since the All-Star break as the Sox (39-121) have all season.
“It’s been an extremely difficult year for everybody,” first baseman Gavin 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 only four years ago. It’s frustrating. It doesn’t feel good.”
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.”
Crochet’s replacement, left-hander Jared Shuster, walked three batters and was charged with a wild pitch in a two-run Tigers fifth. The Sox, meanwhile, mustered only three hits on a bullpen day for Detroit, one of them rookie outfielder Zach DeLoach’s first career home run.
The Tigers, part of an American League Central that got fat off the Sox’ ineptitude, are 31-11 since Aug. 11 and were celebrating with Jason Benetti, the popular former Sox broadcaster who jumped ship for the Tigers’ booth.
“We like winning,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’re October-bound, just like our shirts say. I got to watch a team grow up in front of my eyes, and now I get to watch them play in October.”
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.
“It’s not the year we wanted,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “It’s not the numbers that we want. But that doesn’t mean it’s a total loss. We can build from this. We can learn from this and get better. We’ll be stronger because of it.”
DeLoach showed some strength with a double in the first inning and a solo homer off Brant Hurter in the sixth that closed the Sox’ deficit to 2-1. Riley Greene’s RBI double and a wild pitch by Fraser Ellard accounted for two more Tigers runs, making it 4-1.
Crochet finishes with 209 strikeouts in 146 innings for an average of 12.9 strikeouts, which leads the majors. It’s the ninth-highest ratio all time by a starter with 100 innings or more.
Those numbers were overshadowed, though, by the number of the night. A number for the ages: 121.
“The frustration has been long before the number,” Sizemore said. “I don’t know that I would feel any different if we were at 115 or 110. It’s still a frustrating year.”
“You start to believe in that [winning streak] and think it’s maybe not going to happen,” Sheets said. “And all of a sudden on the last out, you’re on the wrong side of history. It hurt a little more than I expected it to.”