After Friday’s late-inning heroics and Saturday’s easy victory, could the Tigers make it three in a row in their four-game wrap-around series at Comiskey New Comiskey US Cellular Guaranteed Rate Field, thus handing the home team their hundredth loss on the year?
(When you think about it, a baseball stadium named after an insurance company is just as stupid as one named after a bank. Money talks, baloney walks.)
As it turns out, yes, they could make it three in a row, as they beat the White Sox 9-4 on a steamy Sunday afternoon.
Sunday’s pseudostart went to Beau Brieske. He did the same on Wednesday on the south side of town, giving the team two nice, scoreless innings before giving way to Brant Hurter, that day’s designated “bulk innings” guy. Brieske had a rough July, surrendering 12 runs in 12 ⅓ innings; opposing batsmen had a 1.016 OPS against him (ouch!). His August coming into today was quite the opposite, with a nice 1.69 ERA in seven appearances.
Rookie Jonathan Cannon got the start for the White Socks, who has settled down after a rocky start to his major-league career. He was called up in mid-April, made three starts of varying quality, then spent some time in Triple-A and didn’t do particularly well there. But it’s the White Sox, and they need arms like you need bacon, so he came back up in June and has actually done pretty well. He’ll give up a home run here and there, will walk a couple more than he should, but he’s routinely pitched into the sixth and seventh. The Tigers lit him up on June 23, though, and he didn’t record an out in the second inning, giving up eight runs (five earned).
The Tigers loaded the bases in the first with one out via two walks sandwiched between a catcher’s interference call, as Cannon’s command wasn’t looking too good early on. Alas, Jace Jung grounded into a tailor-made double play to spoil the threat.
A walk, groundout and a pair of doubles netted the Pale Hose a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, as Brieske didn’t come out very sharp. He gave way to Bryan Sammons for the second.
With two outs in the third, Kerry Carpenter doubled and took third on an error, and was driven-in by a Colt Keith single. A Jung single put runners on the corners but Spencer Torkelson struck out. Le sigh.
Andrew Vaughn crushed a solo home run in the bottom of the third to restore the Chicagoans’ lead back to two, but the Tigers got that back in the fourth with a Zach McKinstry single and a perfectly-placed Parker Meadows triple down the left field line to make it a 3-2 score.
A trio of singles to start the fifth evened the score at 3’s, and eventually the Tigers loaded the bases which ended the day for Cannon. Fraser Ellard took over, and an Andy Ibáñez pinch-hit fielder’s choice scored the fourth Tiger run. Trey Sweeney then singled to centre to score Jung and put runners on the corners with one out in a 5-2 game. You had to wonder if the Tigers were going to bust this one wide open at this point, but a very dumb set of baserunning decisions derailed things: Dillon Dingler hit a comebacker, the Tigers got themselves into sort-of-two rundowns, and that was that. Here, check this out, if you dare:
Sammons stuck around until the sixth; he walked the first two of the inning and then got an infield fly pop-up for the first out. Will Vest relieved him and got Lenyn Sosa on a swinging strikeout and Dominic Fletcher on soft liner to second, pouring cold water all over the Sox’s’es’’ threat (how does one spell that?!).
NARRATOR: “It was at this point that the author hoped the reader would’ve noticed that he thinks the Chicago team’s nickname is ridiculous.”
With two outs in the seventh Torkelson hit a chopper to third which was misplayed; a throwing error put him on second. Ibáñez then unloaded on a juicy slider, depositing it into the left-field seats for a 7-3 lead.
It’s nice that Ibáñez got that off a righty; he’s been having a tough go of it against, uh, northpaws this year.
The guys in black-and-white pinstripes got a run back in the bottom of the inning with a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly, but then Tyler Holton was brought in with two outs. Fun fact: Holton has given up exactly one (1) run since June 26th. So, naturally, he struck out Andrew Benintendi to end the seventh.
In the eighth Keith drove in a pair o’ Tigers with what looked like a triple, but was later ruled a double and an error, to add a little insurance and make it a 9-4 game. Holton got into a little trouble in the bottom of the inning, with runners on the corners and two outs… but, yep, he got Miguel Vargas on a swinging strikeout.
Jason Foley came on for the ninth and it was mostly boring, which is exactly how we like it around here.
Congratulations are in order to Bryan Sammons, who at age 29 has made his major league debut, and today, earned his first major league victory. Very cool story.
The Tigers will look to finally claw their season record back to .500 on Monday as rookie RHP Ty Madden, our seventh ranked Tigers’ prospect in the preseason, makes his major league debut.
Box Score: Tigers 9, White Sox 4
That’s a pretty hot corner indeed
I despise the Yankees, but as a co-ed rec-league slo-pitch third baseman: game recognizes game.
Notes and Numbers
- In nine games (35 plate appearances) since his return from the Injured List, Kerry Carpenter has batted .242, but with an .892 OPS thanks to his 4 home runs. I’d like it if he got injured less, though.
- (You too, Riley Greene.)
- Bowden Francis of the Toronto Blue Jays had eight hitless innings before giving up a leadoff home run in the ninth against the Angels on Saturday. Since their inception in 1977, the Jays have only ever thrown one no-hitter, famously by Dave Stieb after several near-misses.
- If you haven’t seen the Secret Base multi-part documentary on Stieb, boy oh boy, you really should.
- Charlie Watts was not a good drummer. There, I said it. Listen to songs like “Sway” and even early stuff like “It’s All Over Now”. His fills are sloppy and he struggles to fit everything in before the next bar starts. That said, I’ve always loved the Stones. You know who stayed exactly within himself? Levon Helm.
- Editor’s Note: Oh good, let’s take some shots at Ringo while we’re at it.
- On this day in 1609, Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first telescope to some influential people in Venice. Galileo, who was originally from Florence, was quite the guy: mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and probably a hell of a dancer.