OAKLAND -- The Tigers became the first Major League team to reach the 100-loss mark this season after falling, 3-1, to the A’s on Sunday in the final game of a road swing through Kansas City and the Bay Area.

Detroit, which enters a series at home against the Yankees on Tuesday with a 42-100 record, lost 98, 98 and 99 games the last three seasons. This season will wind up as the worst for Detroit since the 119-loss season of 2003, when the Tigers reached 100 losses on Aug. 30.

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“Everybody here is a competitor; we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t striving to win like these playoff teams,” said left fielder Christin Stewart, who plated Detroit's only run in the fifth inning with his ninth homer of the season. “We are a young team, learning together, but every time we go out there, we’re still expecting to win.

“I know we haven’t been on the winning side a lot, but that’s still our goal.”

Daniel Norris, held to three innings for the sixth consecutive start as the Tigers try to keep him going every fifth day without exceeding an innings limit, is not happy with the 100-loss mark, but he offers some perspective, too, after giving up one hit and one run this time out.

“It’s been a tough season as far as that goes,” said Norris, who took the loss. “But if we focus on every day and try and grow every day, we’re going to get better. And honestly, we’ve been playing really good baseball lately. We’re not coming out on top as much as we’d like, but you’ve got to look at the progress we’ve made.”

Manager Ron Gardenhire doesn’t want to be saddled with a 100-loss season any more than anyone else, but he’s spent a life in baseball, long enough to know that tomorrow is a new day. His Tigers teams lost 98 and 99 games the last two seasons, and his 2011 Twins team also lost 99. 

“No one wants to lose 100 ballgames,” Gardenhire said. “But when you’re with a young ball team like this, I understand this. We’ve had some really bad streaks, and that’s how you wind up losing 100. We’ve had too many of those bad streaks.

“But if you look at our team out there, there are a lot of rookies, a lot of young people playing and a lot of injuries to our pitchers. We don’t try to use any excuses; people have to step up. As long as they are playing the game like they are playing and trying hard and giving everything they have, then you know what? The 100 losses mean nothing to me. I know that these guys give a flip, they are trying, and that’s all I can ask for as a manager.”

Gardenhire and the Tigers organization like what they have in the Minor League pipeline, especially in terms of pitching. And they have role models, particularly the Astros. It was in 2013 that Houston lost 111 games; Houston has been in the postseason three times in the last four years and will be there again this time around.

“Look at them now,” Gardenhire said of the Astros. “That’s kind of what we look at.”

The Tigers got just two hits off A’s left-hander Sean Manaea in seven innings on Sunday, the first of which was Stewart’s homer. The A’s were already up, 3-0, at that point.

Saturday and Sunday were mostly a study in frustration for the Tigers’ offense. The hitters compounded Saturday’s 19 strikeouts with 13 more on Sunday. The 32 combined K's equal the most in back-to-back nine-inning games for Detroit this year; the Tigers struck out 32 times combined on April 26 (12) and April 28 (20).