Andrew Vaughn and White Sox Cannot Avoid Record 121st Defeat

The Detroit Tigers beat Chicago 4-1 and the Sox have the most losses in a season since 1899

Andrew Vaughn / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

Former Cal star Andrew Vaughn flied out to right for the final out in the ninth inning Friday afternoon and the Chicago White Sox clinched a spot in baseball infamy.

With a 4-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers — who locked up a wild-card spot in the American League playoffs — the White Sox absorbed their 121st defeat.

That breaks their tie with the expansion 1962 New York Mets for the most defeats in an MLB season since 1900. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders lost 134 games — most ever by a big league club.

The White Sox have been on the doorstep of this unwanted moment since losing their 120th game on Sunday.

Refusing to set the record for futility on their home field, the Sox rose up to win three in a row against the Los Angeles Angels.

Vaughn, who was college baseball’s Golden Spikes Award national player of the year as a sophomore at Cal in 2018, collected three hits and drove in a pair of runs in Thursday’s 7-0 win over the Angels.

But facing a motivated Tigers squad in Detroit, the Sox could no longer avoid loss No. 121. Vaughn went 0 for 4, dropping his season batting average to .246. Fellow ex-Golden Bear Korey Lee was 0 for 3 and enters the season’s final weekend hitting .210.

Chicago (39-121) managed just three hits against the Tigers (86-74).

The teams close out the regular season with day games on Saturday and Sunday, but the White Sox final chapter already has been written.