Chicago White Sox lose 120th game of the season, setting a modern MLB record

The 2024 Chicago White Sox have made history, but not a good one.

On Sunday, they lost their 120th game of the season, tying the 1962 New York Mets for the most losses in a single season since the modern baseball era began in 1900. With six games left in the regular season, it's more than likely that the Sox will set a new record in the next few days.

For the White Sox, it was a loss like the 119 others they have suffered this year, although it was closer than many others – they lost to the San Diego Padres 4-2.

The White Sox have a chance to break the record on Tuesday at home against the Los Angeles Angels.

First, let's talk about the team the White Sox just tied against. The 1962 Mets were a brand new team, formed as an expansion franchise after the Brooklyn Dodgers packed up camp and moved to Los Angeles and the New York Giants went to San Francisco. Expansion teams recruit players from other teams' rosters, so they're not expected to be good right away. The Mets were particularly bad, but a certain level of badness was to be expected.

The White Sox have been in Chicago since 1900. Jerry Reinsdorf has owned the franchise since 1981. They lost 101 games in 2023, then fired their general manager and promoted farm director Chris Getz to the post. With the GM replaced by the farm director, the hope was that on-field performance would improve, or at least not get worse. Bad things were expected, but certainly not to this historic level.

In a season full of humiliations, the last two months have been particularly rough for the South Side. Here's a look at what's happened to the White Sox since August 1.

Monumental series of defeats. They lost 21 games in a row, leaving them just one loss away from the American League's all-time record.

Manager fired. A day after ending their losing streak, Getz and Reinsdorf fired controversial manager Pedro Grifol, who had a shocking 89-190 record in less than two seasons at the helm. The White Sox had a 28-89 record when he was fired.

Incredibly early exit. The White Sox were eliminated from the playoffs on August 17, the earliest elimination of a team since division play was introduced in 1969.

Lost 100 games for the third time in six years. On August 25, the White Sox reached the 100-loss mark. It was the sixth time in franchise history that the team lost that many games in the regular season.

On September 1st, tied the franchise loss record. The White Sox record for most losses in a season was 106, set in 1970. The 2024 team tied that record a full month before the end of the regular season.

Received condolences from surviving members of the 1962 Mets. Three members of the infamous 1962 Mets team publicly expressed their sympathy for the 2024 White Sox, including pitchers Craig Anderson (who went 3-17 in 1962) and Jay Hook (who went 8-19). The late first baseman Ed Kranepool also felt bad, but had a slightly different opinion: “Better them than me.”

Jerry Reinsdorf “thinks he knows everything” and is accused of leading the White Sox to ruin. The Athletic spoke to more than 40 current and former White Sox employees, and the prevailing opinion was that Reinsdorf, with his general refusal to modernize and accept other opinions, was responsible for the White Sox's historically awful 2024 season.

With just one loss between them and history, the White Sox enter uncharted territory in 2024. Once they set the MLB losing record, they'll go where no modern baseball team has gone before. It's lonely out there on the frontier of history.