CHICAGO — Andy Ibáñez homered and had three RBIs as the Detroit Tigers sent the Chicago White Sox to their 100th loss with a 9-4 victory on Sunday.
Andrew Vaughn doubled, homered and had two RBIs for the White Sox (31-100), who need to go 12-19 to avoid tying the 1962 New York Mets, who were 40-120-1, for the modern major league record for most losses in a season.
Chicago will fall short of the all-time record held by the Cleveland Spiders, who finished 20-134 in 1899.
In MLB history, only the 1916 Philadelphia A’s, who were 29-100-1, reached 100 losses in fewer games than the White Sox.
“Obviously, no one wants to lose 100 games, especially with still a month to go,” White Sox starter Jonathan Cannon said. “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.”
Colt Keith had three hits and three RBIs for the Tigers, who have won four of five.
Chicago has lost 100 or more games six times in franchise history and in consecutive seasons for the first time.
They went 61-101 last season under manager Pedro Grifol, who was fired Aug. 8. Chicago is 3-11 under interim manager Grady Sizemore.
“Everyone in that locker room is aware of the record and how frustrating it is, absolutely,” Sizemore said.
The White Sox dropped a club-worst 106 games in 1970. Their worst winning percentage is .325, when they went 49-102-1 in 1932.
Bryan Sammons (1-1) allowed a run and three hits in 4 1/3 innings for Detroit to earn his first big league victory.
Cannon (2-8) gave up five runs and eight hits in four innings for the White Sox.
“We know where we are at. We know it’s not good,” Chicago left fielder Andrew Benintendi said.
Benintendi and Vaughn hit back-to-back doubles off opener Beau Brieske to put the White Sox ahead 2-0 in the first.
Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter doubled, reached third on center fielder Dominic Fletcher’s fielding error and scored on Keith’s single to cut the lead to 2-1 in the third. Chicago had four errors.
Vaughn hit his 15th homer, a solo shot, off Sammons in the third to increase Chicago’s lead to 3-1.
Zach McKinstry singled, stole second and scored on Parker Meadows’ triple to make it 3-2 in the fourth.
The Tigers scored three runs in the fifth to take a 5-3 lead. Carpenter, Keith and Jace Jung hit consecutive singles to tie it before pinch hitter Ibáñez grounded into a fielder’s choice and Trey Sweeney singled to bring in the other runs.
“As we’ve gotten younger, a little more athletic, we’ve gotten a little bit better and the wins have come,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Everybody is chipping away at doing their part because we do want to have a winning team.”
Ibáñez hit a two-run homer off Enyel De Los Santos in the seventh and Keith added a two-run double in the eighth for the Tigers who are now a game away from the .500 mark at 65-66.
“That’d be a big goal for us to achieve,” Keith said about Detroit reaching .500. “I’ve been saying for a while that this team has a lot of potential. We’ve just got to be more consistent and you see us being consistent the last couple weeks, playing good baseball.”
