White Sox wrap up record-breaking losing season with 9-5 win over playoff-bound Tigers

DETROIT (AP) — Lenyn Sosa hit a three-run homer in the third inning to give the record-breaking Chicago White Sox a five-run lead as they went on to beat the playoff-bound Detroit Tigers 9-5 on Sunday.

Kerry Carpenter's grand slam in the fifth inning pulled Detroit within a run, but it couldn't get closer. Bryan Ramos' two-run single in a four-run seventh inning restored Chicago's comfortable cushion.

Detroit earned an American League wild card with a win over the White Sox on Friday night to end a decade-long playoff drought and will play at Houston on Tuesday in a best-of-three series, with the winner facing Cleveland in the AL Division Series.

“Baseball, it's going to take you places and sometimes to places you've been,” said Hinch, who was fired by the Astros in 2020 after being suspended by Major League Baseball for the team’s illicit use of electronics to steal signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series title and again in the 2018 season.

The Tigers finished 86-76, an eight-game improvement over last year, for their first winning season since 2016 with a surge that saw them win 31 of the last 46 games.

“We have all the confidence in the world,” Tigers All-Star outfielder Riley Greene said. “We know we have what it takes. We’re going to go there and show them what we got.”

The White Sox wrapped up with 121 losses, breaking the post-1900 record of most losses held for more than a half-century by the 1962 New York Mets. The overall record for setbacks was set in 1899 by the Cleveland Spiders with a 20-134 record.

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf called the season “embarrassing” and a “failure” and took responsibility in a letter issued to fans during the game.

Chicago won 41 games — 20 fewer than last season — after ending with five wins in six games for the team's best stretch of success since early May.

The White Sox fired manager Pedro Grifol in early August and promoted Grady Sizemore to interim manager.

“It would be so easy in a season like this to have a lot of negativity and a lot of back and forth and bickering and fighting, but there hasn’t been any of that," Sizemore said. "They’ve stayed together as a family. That’s what’s made it fun for everybody even though we got the wins and losses.”

Jonathan Cannon (5-10) allowed four runs on four hits and three walks over five innings when Chicago's season mercifully came to a close.

Kenta Maeda (3-7) gave up five runs on five hits and one walk over 4 2/3 innings in his latest shaky performance. The Tigers gave him a $24 million, two-year contract last November and the 36-year-old Japanese right-hander might not make the playoff roster.

Playing for pride, the White Sox showed some fight over the final week of the lost season.

Korey Lee hit an RBI single in the second, scoring Sosa, and Dominic Fletcher's sacrifice fly later in the inning put Chicago ahead 2-0. Sosa hit Maeda's 84-mph splitter over the left-field fence to clear the bases and put the White Sox up 5-0 in the third inning.

The Tigers drew 41,740 fans on Sunday and 1,855,763 for the season after 1,612,876 people attended games in 2023 at Comerica Park. Detroit had 128,108 fans attend the final series, its highest total for a three-game set since 2012.

The White Sox will play the Cubs on Feb. 22 in their spring training opener.

The Tigers will play the Astros on the road in a three-game series, starting Tuesday.

“We're trying to go win a series so we could bring a home playoff game to Comerica,” Hinch said.

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Detroit Tigers pitcher Keider Montero throws against the Chicago White Sox in the seventh inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Tigers pitcher Casey Mize throws against the Chicago White Sox in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Tigers' Kerry Carpenter celebrates his grand slam against the Chicago White Sox in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Chicago White Sox's Bryan Ramos hits a two-run single against the Detroit Tigers in the seventh inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Chicago White Sox's Jacob Amaya hits a one-run single against the Detroit Tigers in the seventh inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Chicago White Sox pitcher Prelander Berroa throws against the Detroit Tigers in the eighth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Chicago White Sox shortstop Jacob Amaya can't reach a Detroit Tigers' Wenceel Pérez single in the eighth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Chicago White Sox interim manger Grady Sizemore watches against the Detroit Tigers in the eighth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Chicago White Sox pitcher Fraser Ellard throws against the Detroit Tigers in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Tigers' Kerry Carpenter hits a grand slam against the Chicago White Sox in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Tigers' Kerry Carpenter, right, celebrates his grand slam against the Chicago White Sox in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenta Maeda (18) walks in the dugout against the Chicago White Sox in the third inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Chicago White Sox's Lenyn Sosa celebrates his three-run home run against the Detroit Tigers in the third inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)