The 121st Loss

September 27, 2024, at Detroit. The White Sox lost, 4–1, and the loss was their 121st. The 1962 Mets had lost 120, which had been the modern record. Chicago finished 41–121. During the summer the club also lost 21 in a row, a franchise record. Pedro Grifol, the manager, was fired in August. Grady Sizemore finished the season.

A hundred and twenty-one losses is not one play. It is a season that became a number, the way 120 had been a number since the Mets were new. The Mets of 1962 were an expansion club playing its first year. The White Sox of 2024 were not.

The entry is the record and the distinction. Passing an expansion team's first season, sixty-two years later, is the fact. The streak of 21 is the stretch inside it that did not need the final weekend to be obvious.