Corey Julks made the slow walk back to the dugout.
He had just hit the ball on the button, but right at Detroit Tigers shortstop Trey Sweeney to begin a double play that would wrap up another loss for the Chicago White Sox.
But it wasn’t just any other defeat, it was loss No. 100 on the season.
The Sox became just the second team in the modern era of Major League Baseball history to lose 100-plus times over the first 131 games of a season after falling 9-4 on Sunday in front of 16,928 at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Sox joined the ranks of the 1916 Philadelphia A’s — who were 29-101-1 after game 131.
At 31-100, the Sox are 69 games under .500 for the first time in franchise history.
“Everyone in that locker room is aware of the record and how frustrating it is, absolutely,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said.
It’s just the sixth time in franchise history the Sox have had a 100-loss season. It’s the first time they’ve had consecutive 100-loss seasons after finishing 61-101 in 2023.
And it’s by far the earliest they’ve reached the mark in terms of both game number and date. The 1932 Sox lost their 100th in the 146th game of the season, on Sept. 19 of that year.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys that come in here every single day and work as hard as we can,” starter Jonathan Cannon said. “Obviously no one wants to lose 100 games, especially with still a month to go. But we’re going to keep coming here every day, getting our work in, and keep just going out there and trying to win some ballgames.”
For perspective, the expansion 1962 New York Mets — who hold the modern-day MLB record with 120 losses — had their 100th defeat in Game No. 134 on Aug. 29. The 2003 Tigers — who hold the American League record with 119 defeats — suffered their 100th loss also in Game No. 134, on Aug. 30.
“We are not where we want to be, obviously,” left fielder Andrew Benintendi said. “Grady said it best where if you are not winning the last game of the year, it really doesn’t matter.
“We know where we are at. We know it’s not good and I think everybody is just moving on to tomorrow.”
Sunday’s game checked several boxes of similar outcomes this season.
It’s the 48th time the team has been defeated after leading at some point in the game and the 38th time when scoring first.
The loss clinched their 15th consecutive series loss — the Sox dropped the first three games with a fourth on the slate for Monday. The Sox last won a series when they took two of three from the Colorado Rockies on June 28-30 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Sox jumped ahead Sunday with two runs in the first inning. Benintendi had an RBI double and then scored on a double by Andrew Vaughn.
Vaughn hit a solo home run in the third to make it 3-1.
The Tigers scored once in the fourth and then took a 5-3 lead with three in the fifth. Cannon allowed five runs on eight hits with four walks and four strikeouts in four-plus innings. He exited after the first four hitters of the fifth inning reached.
“It didn’t feel like the stuff was bad, I just didn’t have great command of it,” Cannon said. “Fell behind in a lot of counts, had to work out of some jams early. Then just a couple of seeing-eye singles in the fifth and a walk that ended up doing it for me.
“Today I wasn’t able to get us out of some of those jams. Left with the bases loaded, (reliever Fraser Ellard) did a good job of coming in and putting out the fire the best he could. Obviously that’s a tough situation to put your relievers in and have to go to the bullpen that early in the game.”
The Tigers got to the Sox bullpen with a two-run home run by Andy Ibáñez in the seventh against Enyel De Los Santos and a two-run double by Colt Keith against Touki Toussaint in the eighth.
The Sox committed a season-high four errors as they took another step closer to the 1962 Mets. The Sox need to go 12-19 in their final 31 games to avoid tying the Mets (40-120) for most losses in a season.
“Everybody in here is a professional,” Benintendi said. “Everybody knows what they need to do to be ready to play. It’s not been a fun year or a good year. So, I think everybody can learn from this and move forward.”
