White Sox 5, Tigers 1: Alright, who hid all the bats?

After a Friday night win assisted by some boneheaded baserunning, a warm Star Wars Day Saturday afternoon contest featured more anemic hitting and a 5-1 loss.

Making his thirteenth start for the Tigers this season was Kenta Maeda, and it’s been a rough, rough go of it lately for him. Before today he’d only pitched into the sixth three times, and coming into today’s game, in his previous four starts — okay, he lasted two pitches of one of ‘em, but we’ll count that — he pitched a total of 13 ⅔ innings, gave up 10 runs on 14 hits, and his OPS-against was .844. But, since the White Sox aren’t exactly known this year for their prowess with the lumber, so if Maeda’s going to have any success, you’d hope it’d be against these guys. (No disrespect, ChiSox fans, I just despise your team, is all.)

Drew Thorpe, a 24-year-old rookie making his third major-league start, faced the Tigers — who, let’s face it, don’t have a lineup full of rockstars either. He was drafted in 2022 out of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which is a darn mouthful, and was having a stellar 2024 at Double-A Birmingham before getting the call to the Show. His debut, against the Mariners, went alright; his follow-up performance against the Diamondbacks did not.

Maeda looked pretty good early on, limiting hard contact and even striking out four in the first three innings. His control was on-track as well, which was a relief to see.

Luis Robert Jr. led off the top of the fourth with a double and stole third uncontested. But then Gavin Sheets struck out, Andrew Vaughn hit a comebacker and Maeda checked Robert back to third before making the throw to first, but Paul DeJong squeaked a grounder under Ryan Kreidler’s glove at shortstop for the 1-0 lead. Nicky Lopez doubled to right for a 2-0 lead, but a Lenyn Sosa fly out to right limited the damage.

In the bottom of the fourth Wenceel Pérez hit a double to left with two outs, and a Justyn-Henry Malloy walk followed, but Jake Rogers flew out to short right field and that was that.

Maeda didn’t make it through the fifth; a pair of singles put runners on the corners with two out, and Will Vest was brought in to deal with Vaughn, who singled just past Gio Urshela’s glove at third to drive in a run for a 3-0 score. Fortunately Vest then struck out DeJong to end the inning.

Meanwhile, Thorpe was having himself a pretty nice day for the White Socks, walking a couple but only conceding a couple of hits. I know there’s an old saw about unknown pitchers dominating the Tigers at times… and I’d like to be able to say I don’t believe in it at all. But, well.

Joey Wentz came on for the sixth and served up a solo home run to the first batter he faced, making it a 4-0 game. A single, stolen base and another single made it 5-0 and it was looking like this game was really starting to slip away. With two outs Wentz was dismissed in favour of Mason Englert, who struck out Robert on a changeup to end the inning.

Englert stuck around for the seventh and the eighth, retiring everyone he faced.

Matt Vierling led off the bottom of the eighth with a hard single to left. Colt Keith then hit a double to right-centre on which he hustled like the dickens, putting two in scoring position. But then Riley Greene grounded out to second and the runners couldn’t advance; a Canha grounder to third did score a run, finally, for a 5-1 tally. Urshela thence struck out looking to end the frame, alas.

Shelby Miller came out for the ninth and got three crisp outs.

Michael Kopech pitched the bottom of the ninth for the Illinoisers (I assume that’s the correct demonym). I don’t remember him touching 99 mph much before, but a move to the bullpen might do that for you, I suppose. He gave up a two-out single to Rogers and pinch-hitter Akil Baddoo walked; could the Cardiac Cats make one heck of a late comeback?!

Apparently not, as Vierling struck out looking on a way-outside 3-2 pitch to end the game. ROBOT UMPS, PLEASE.

Box Score: White Sox 5, Tigers 1

###I think these are the bad guys###

Numbers and Notes

• I know we’ve bemoaned the Tigers’ lack of offence this season. But, keep this in mind: coming into today’s set of games, the entire American League was batting .239, slugging .393, and had an OPS of .702.
• By those metrics, Mark Canha is roughly league-average (batting .244, slugging .372, OPS of .721).
• Canha’s walk-up song: “Sweet Dreams” by The Eurythmics.
• People really have to stop doing The Wave.
• Happy 42nd birthday to former Tiger Ian Kinsler. Man, I loved having that guy on this team.
• We are not happy.