It took 62 years for a team to surpass the modern record of 120 losses.
The new mark of 121 might fall a little quicker.
When Colorado routed San Diego 9-3 on Sunday — a “that’s baseball” moment if there ever was one — the Rockies improved their record to 7-33. That’s still just one game better than the worst 40-game start in modern history, set by the 1988 Baltimore Orioles.
Those Orioles famously started the season 0-21, and this year’s Rockies just experienced those two numbers in reverse — in the 21-0 loss they took against the Padres on Saturday. Even after rebounding with a win Sunday, the Rockies fired manager Bud Black.
When the White Sox went 41-121 last year, they were outscored by 306 runs over the whole season. Colorado has played less than a fourth of it and is already at minus-128.
Last year’s White Sox were 12-28 after 40 games, but they had losing streaks of 14, 21 and 12 still to come. Even then, they only broke the record for losses (set by the 1962 Mets) and not the one for the lowest winning percentage.
So it takes a lot to approach that many losses, but right now baseball is in an era when terrible teams are common. Since the 162-game schedule was introduced in 1961, there have been 14 teams that finished with at least 110 defeats. Half of them played in the past dozen years: the 2013 Astros (51-111), the 2018 and 2021 Orioles (47-115 and 52-110), the 2019 Tigers (47-114), the 2021 Diamondbacks (52-110), the 2023 Athletics (50-112) and the 2024 White Sox.
So in that sense, this year’s Rockies fit right in.
Of the other seven teams since 1961 that lost at least 110 games, five were expansion teams that hadn’t yet been around long: the 1962, 1963 and 1965 Mets (40-120, 51-111 and 50-112), the 1969 Expos (52-110) and the 1969 Padres (52-110).
The 2003 Tigers (43-119) and 2004 Diamondbacks (51-111) were the non-expansion teams to reach that level of infamy.
After waiting in line at the Vatican, Jason Perash of Colorado got the pontiff to autograph a ball. The pope is reportedly a Chicago White Sox fan.
Through the first 41 games, the Sox own the same record, 12-29, as last year’s team did at this point.
The freshly promoted first baseman’s first major-league hit was a game-winning homer off 2022 Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara.
While Quero has impressed in his first taste of the major leagues, fellow top-100 prospect Teel is off to a nice start in Triple-A.
