Hey, it’s Sunday baseball! There was a very unreliable strike zone! The White Sox wore their throwback alternates.
Anyway let’s look at what happened in the game. Lance Lynn was on for the White Sox and Tyler Alexander and his epic mustache took the mound for the Tigers.
Lynn allowed one infield single to Javier Baez in the top of the first, but the Tigers couldn’t take advantage of the early baserunner. In the bottom half of the first Alexander allowed a two-out hit to Jimenez, followed by an Abreu single, but a fielder’s choice ended the inning and got him out of the jam.
Lynn struck out the side for the second. Alexander started out a bit rocky with a walk to Harrison, who was then erased on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Engel. Engel successfully stole second, but the White Sox scored no runs on the inning.
Onto the third, and the Tigers drew first blood. Baddoo got a one-out single, then Greene followed it with a single of his own. Baddoo then scored on a wild pitch from Lynn. A Baez double scored Greene. Seriously can we talk about the spiteful magic of Javier Baez when he’s playing in Chicago? Can we bottle it and make him this useful all the time? The Tigers were up 2-0 at the half-inning. In the bottom half the White Sox immediately bit back, with Pollock hitting a solo shot. Moncada followed with a walk, but three outs in a row ended the inning and the Sox would need to settle for just one run.
Lynn went 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth, and then Alexander gave up only a walk to Zavala in the bottom of the inning.
Barnhart singled to start off the fifth, but was quickly eliminated by the double-play. In the bottom of the inning the Tigers lead was unfortunately obliterated. Pollock doubled to start things off, Then a one-out Jimenez double scored Pollock to tie the game. Abreu singled, and then a Vaughn hit lead to a fielder’s choice and also scored Jimenez, giving the White Sox the lead. That was the end of the night for Alexander, whose final line for the game was 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 HR on 97 pitches. Not great, but honestly not terrible either.
The Tigers went down in order once again in the top of the sixth. In the bottom half of the inning Foley came on in relief and a two-out single to Sosa was the White Sox only hit, and he was eliminated on the fielder’s choice.
Top of the seventh was much the same for the Tigers as it was three-up-three-down. Lange was next up out of the bullpen, and he managed to return the favor with his own 1-2-3 inning.
A Haase single was the sole hit for the Tigers in the top of the eighth. Peralta was on for the Tigers in the bottom of the eighth, and well… that might not have been a great choice. Vaughn homered to start things off, followed by a Harrison single. Zavala doubled to score Harrison, the Pollock got a two-out walk. At the end of the inning the White Sox were up 5-2.
Graveman came out for the White Sox hoping to put things to an end in the top of the ninth. Harold Castro got a one-out solo home run. With two outs, Candelario singled, and it was all up to Kody Clemens. No dice, the sweep was finalized and the Tigers managed to make it through an entire week without winning a single game.
Final: White Sox 5, Tigers 3