The Detroit Tigers clinched a spot in the postseason with Friday's 4-1 win, but in the final two games of the regular season, they dropped back-to-back games against the MLB-worst Chicago White Sox.

That included a 9-5 loss in Sunday's finale.

The playoffs begin Tuesday, with the wild-card-winning Tigers heading to Houston to face the AL West-champion Astros in a best-of-three series.

The only positive was Kerry Carpenter hitting a grand slam off right-hander Jonathan Cannon's first-pitch fastball in the fifth inning, cutting the Tigers' deficit to 5-4. But the Tigers were unable to complete the comeback, finishing with an 86-76 record in their fourth season under manager A.J. Hinch.

"What I believe is when you get to the playoffs, everybody is dangerous," Hinch said. "Everybody gets there in their own way. They get there with their strengths. They get there trying to shield their weaknesses. And then October comes, and it's a whole new season."

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As for the season, .531 is the best winning percentage for the Tigers since 2016. (The White Sox finished with a historic 121 losses, the most in modern baseball history, though they avoided finishing with MLB's worst-ever winning percentage, thanks to wins in five of their final six games.)

Hinch was ejected in the ninth inning by home plate umpire Marvin Hudson, his first ejection in 2024. Hudson tossed Hinch for arguing after a replay review from the umpires upheld Zach McKinstry's flyout to right-center field, even though the ball appeared to hit the wall after a bobble from right fielder Dominic Fletcher.

"I understand automatic ejection, but they took a hit away from Z-Mac," Hinch said. "I thought it was pretty clear that it hit the wall. Maybe they didn't have the right angle. You could see by the reaction of the right fielder. I just thought it was an injustice. He deserved a hit."

The Tigers didn't do anything on offense until Carpenter's grand slam in the fifth inning, which traveled 425 feet to the seats in right-center field. Before his swing, the Tigers loaded the bases with walks to Spencer Torkelson (on 10 pitches), Trey Sweeney (on six pitches) and Parker Meadows (on five pitches).

Trailing 9-4, the Tigers loaded the bases for Torkelson in the eighth inning, facing right-handed reliever Prelander Berroa. The bases were loaded by Matt Vierling's walk, Wenceel Pérez's single and Jace Jung's pinch-hit walk.

Torkelson worked a six-pitch walk, making it 9-5.

But Sweeney, who finished 1-for-18 during the six-game homestand, grounded out on the second pitch from right-handed reliever Enyel De Los Santos to strand the bases loaded and end the inning.

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Three pitchers

Right-hander Kenta Maeda, right-hander Casey Mize and right-hander Keider Montero all struggled against the White Sox, but Maeda had the worst performance among the three pitchers.

Maeda started for the first time since July 4.

"I threw close to 90 pitches," Maeda said in Japanese, interpreted by Dai Sekizaki. "I think the chances are slim of me making the (wild-card) roster."

He allowed five runs on five hits and one walk with five strikeouts across 4⅔ innings, throwing 89 pitches. He allowed two runs in the second inning and three runs in the third inning. In the third, Lenyn Soto hit a three-run home run off Maeda's splitter with two outs.

Mize replaced Maeda with two outs in the fifth inning. Mize, making his second relief appearance, recorded the third out in the fifth and worked out of trouble in the sixth before getting chased in the seventh.

The Tigers swapped Mize for Montero after a single and a walk in the seventh, but both runners ended up scoring as part of a four-run seventh for the White Sox, making it 9-4.

Mize allowed two runs on two hits and two walks with zero strikeouts across 1⅓ innings, throwing 39 pitches; Montero allowed two runs (one earned run) on four hits and one walk with two strikeouts in three innings, throwing 56 pitches.

"We were going to push Kenta as far as we could," Hinch said. "In this situation, you want to use as minimal pitching as you can without the expanded, expanded rosters. This is a tricky day for wild-card participants, especially if you've already clinched. The strategy going into the game, that we had eight or nine guys I wasn't going to go to. If it went to extra innings, Z-Mac was going to pitch. That should tell you what our strategy was."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers end regular season with 9-5 loss to Chicago White Sox