With their playoff hopes hanging by a thread, the Tigers took on the Chicago White Sox on the south side of the City of Broad Shoulders on Friday night, in the second game of a four-game weekend series. It looked awful early, then the bullpen did a great job to keep the game close as the bats woke up and clawed back from a six-run deficit to win 11-8.
Andrew Sears made his third start and fifth appearance of the year (and his career) for the Tigers. His previous outing against the Rockies was, well,
rocky: he pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up four runs. But his other start, in Cleveland, went much better: 5 2/3 innings, giving up only four hits and a single run. This one, on the other hand, would not go well for him (but it wasn’t entirely his fault).
Facing the Tigers was fellow rookie David Sandlin, making his fifth start and seventh appearance for the Pale Hose. He was up with the big team in June, then went down until early August, making one long-relief appearance; he came back up for a third time in early September and threw 5 2/3 innings in St. Louis, giving up two hits and three runs, but none of those were earned. That’s a weird line, and it’s something that would come into play tonight.
The Tigers got on the board in the first inning: with two outs, Colt Keith hit a hustle-double to left, never breaking stride going around first. And then a wild pitch — which Sox catcher Kyle Teel could not seem to find — allowed Keith to score all the way from second, again never breaking stride going around third.
When was the last time you saw that?!
The Socks answered back with a very weird bottom of the first: a pair of walks put two runners on, and with two outs a routine ground ball ate up Gleyber Torres at second base, loading the bases. (Keep the fact that it was two outs in mind.) A wild pitch by Sears allowed the tying run, and a hit-by-pitch reloaded the bases. A grounder to Hao-Yu Lee was bobbled, the throw to first was too late, and it was 2-1 with the bases remaining loaded. They got unloaded in a hurry with a bases-clearing double by Colson Montgomery to right field, making it 5-1. Tristan Peters, the ninth batter of the inning, walked, and that was the end of Sears. Beau Brieske came in to stop the bleeding, and he kind-of did: Miguel Vargas hit a double to make it 6-1, and it would’ve been 7-1 but a relay from Riley Greene to Kevin McGonigle nabbed the speedy Peters at home.
That was stupid. Just a stupid half-inning. None of those six runs were earned. I mean, I imagine Torres feels bad about not getting that ground ball, but, sheesh.
The Tigers started chipping away at that lead in the third: Eduardo Valencia led off with a double, took third on a groundout, and scored on a McGonigle single. But then Vargas hit a monster, two-out home run in the bottom of the same inning, after Brieske got him to a 2-2 count, to put Chicago up 8-2. At this point it looked pretty hopeless, and I was ruing the fact that I agreed to cover this game.
Brant Hurter replaced Brieske for the fourth. It’s good to have Hurter back, and he was a nice, stabilizing force in the game.
Detroit again narrowed the lead in the fifth: Max Clark walked, Valencia and Lee singled, and the bases were loaded. McGonigle hit a deep drive to centre, and it ended up being a three-run triple which left the game at 8-5, but Peters came over from right field and hit the vertical support hard, falling to the ground. Gotta warn you, it’s a little tough to watch; Peters left the game and I assume is undergoing concussion protocol.
Hurter carried on until there were two outs in the fifth, and Tyler Kinley took over; he got the dangerous Vargas to fly out harmlessly to right to end the inning.
In the sixth Clark singled with one out, and with two outs he raced around the bases to score on a scorching double from Lee, making it an 8-6 game.
With two outs in the seventh, Greene and Spencer Torkelson walked, pinch-hitter Brett Callahan was announced (for Ben Malgeri, who’s pinch-hit for Zach McKinstry earlier in the game), and tough lefty Sean Newcomb was brought in. Well, AJ Hinch decided it was a fine time to bring in Javier Báez, who singled to right: Greene chugged around third but a great throw from Peters’ replacement, Braden Montgomery, nabbed him at the plate.
Honestly, I think that umpire called that out with a little too much gusto.
Sommers took over for Kinley in the seventh and he needed nine pitches to get three outs. I like that guy.
And then the eighth inning happened: with one out Newcomb plunked Valencia, bringing Lee to the plate. He saw a top-of-the-zone fastball and thwacked it over the right-field fence to tie the game at 8. How about that.
McGonigle followed with a walk, and Newcomb was replaced by Bryan Hudson, who uncorked a wild pitch, allowing McGonigle to advance to second. Torres followed with a single to push McGonigle up to third; John Peck pinch-ran for Torres and was promptly picked off. But then Dillon Dingler, who’s been scuffling for the past month, singled to right, scoring McGonigle and giving the Tigers a 9-8 lead.
Then Greene said, “To heck with all this ‘advancing a base at a time’ nonsense”: he blasted a left-on-left no-doubter home run to right field to make it 11-8. How about that.
After a Torkelson single that was the end of Hudson’s day, departing in favour of Trevor Richards, who got Báez to swing at a slider in the dirt for strike three and the third out. But, holy moly, what an inning. Ain’t no quit in them Gritty Tigs.
Sommers carried on through the eighth like a hot knife through butter, striking out the side.
Lee got a single in the ninth inning — his fourth hit of the game (out of the nine-spot, no less) — but he was stranded and the game went on to the bottom of the ninth.
Kenley Jansen was brought in to nail the thing down against the heart of the Stockings’ order, and he got a pair of popups and a strikeout to complete the comeback victory. What a silly, strange, frustrating, fun game.
Final score: Tigers 11, White Sox 8
You like unearned runs, do you?
Notes and Numbers
- Riley Greene was hitting .284 coming into tonight’s game, which was fifth in the American League.
- Old Friend™ Jahmai Jones, with the Tigers this year (105 plate appearances): .137 batting average, .440 OPS, 2 home runs. With the Red Sox (59 PA): .347 BA, 1.111 OPS, 3 home runs. How about that.
- On this day in 1990, Liechtenstein became a member of the United Nations. I have a small-to-medium obsession with tiny European countries, and this one is the top of my list to visit. It’s a valley high in the Alps, it’s doubly landlocked, and you can’t even get there by train.
