The Tigers made a very short trip south from Wrigley to… is it Guaranteed Rate still? Yes. Anyway, the Tigers kicked off their next Chicago series against the White Sox, with the hope that the mightily struggling club might be easy foes for the weekend.
The White Sox proved that, for one day anyway, they weren’t going to take a loss laying down. The Tigers featured Keider Montero, and Chris Flexen was up for the Sox.
In the first, the Tigers didn’t waste much time getting on the board. Riley Greene hit a one-out double, then Matt Vierling doubled right after him to bring the run in. Kerry Carpenter walked, but two outs followed, so the Tigers had to settle for one.
Montero had a 1-2-3 bottom half.
Jace Jung kicked off the second with a double, then advanced to third on a Trey Sweeney ground out. Dillon Dingler then singled to bring Jung home.
The Sox got to Montero a bit in the second. Gavin Sheets got a one-out single, then Korey Lee singled. One out later, Lenyn Sosa singled to bring Sheets home. Sosa was then caught stealing to end the inning.
Kerry Carpenter got a one-out single in the top of the third, but two quick outs left him stranded. Montero got his groove back in the bottom of the third, shutting the Sox down in order.
In the fourth, the sole Tigers’ baserunner was Trey Sweeney, who reached on a fielding error, but the Tigers failed to bring him home. Andrew Benintendi walked to start the home half of the inning, then Andrew Vaughn followed that with a single. Korey Lee got a one-out double to score Benintendi and tie up the game.
Onto the fifth and again the Tigers managed a single baserunner with a Kerry Carpenter walk, but no runs scored. In the bottom of the inning Nicky Lopez got a one-out walk, followed by a Luis Robert Jr. single. That was the end of the night for Montero, whose final line was 5.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, on 88 pitches. A fair outing.
The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth. Sean Guenther came on in relief of Montero, and gave up a leadoff single to Gavin Sheets. Two outs later, he was pulled and replaced by Will Vest. Dingler had a passed ball, allowing Sheets to get to second, but it ended up not mattering as Vest got the final out of the inning.
Fraser Ellard came in out of the White Sox bullpen to relieve Flexen. Parker Meadows had an interesting at bat. First he was given first base free as an inside pitch was suggested to have hit him. The White Sox challenged and the hit-by-pitch was reversed. Meadows then walked anyway. Greene then singled. Justin Anderson replaced Ellard. Matt Vierling then singled to score Meadows and put the Tigers back in the lead. Colt Keith then got a two-out single to bring Greene home. Keith also successfully stole second, but the Tigers were unable to get him any closer to home.
In the home half, the White Sox had to settle for one baserunner in Luis Robert Jr, but made no headway in chipping away at the fresh lead.
Jared Shuster was next out of the White Sox bullpen, and got the Tigers out in order. Shelby Miller replaced Vest, and gave up a single to Korey Lee, but no runs scored.
After a brief PitchCom delay in the top of the ninth, Meadows doubled. Then Vierling walked. Enyel de los Santos came in to replace Shuster, and Zach McKinstry got a pinch-hit single to score Meadows. Colt Keith walked to load the bases up, but the Tigers would have to settle for the one run. The Tigers defense came to show off, with Jason Foley throwing a mere four pitches and the defense robbing absolutely every effort at a hit. Beautiful conclusion.
Final: Tigers 5, White Sox 2