Believe it or not: the White Sox opened Monday perfectly square with their opponents. Each side had hit 26 home runs in Rate Field over the course of this season.
By the sixth inning of Monday night's run differential-mutilating performance, Kerry Carpenter had as many home runs at Rate Field this season (three) as Luis Robert Jr.
Jonathan Cannon was quick to view his back tightness from the weekend before last as a one-off, but consecutive outings where his best fastball was swapped out in favor of poor command and pronounced homer problems aren't making his case. A lefty-heavy Tigers lineup was the source of the worst outing of his career last June, and they quickly went about composing a first runner-up.
Three pitches after Gleyber Torres flared a pretty well located changeup out to center for a one-out single in the first, Carpenter launched a reprehensible one halfway up the right field concourse for the first of his three jogs around the basepaths on the night. Cannon's first inning was more defined by wayward cutters, so thematically, Dillon Dingler crushing one to left to give the Tigers a 3-0 advantage before the White Sox came to bat felt more apt.
Cannon opened the second by losing a six-pitch battle to Zach McKinstry for a walk, before a high sinker on the outer edge revealed to the crowd in attendance that Wenceel Pérez has opposite-field juice, making it 5-0 on three resounding homers. Will Venable, apparently unimpressed by the mix of flyouts around walks that Cannon used to deliver the game to the bottom of the third with no further damage, shifted to resource management from there on. It's cold comfort when the manager is clearly thinking the same thing as everyone else.
Brought in with his typical level of short notice, Bryse Wilson entered in the fourth and experienced something that transcends the term "wearing it." To his credit, the only home runs he allowed in his five gruesome innings of work were to Carpenter, the sort of lefty power bat that is normally unfamiliar to these parts, and both were relative wall-scrapers compared to his first-inning clout. And it's not Wilson's fault that his post-pitch demeanor has a sort of everyman, evening-summarizing expressiveness.
If this feels like an overly kind summary of the performance of a man who allowed eight runs and 12 hits over five innings, including a double and triple to Parker Meadows while he was making his season debut, it's because his stat line won't do him any favors for the next few months. Wilson's ERA has jumped from 4.88 to 6.80 in the last 2 1/2 weeks.
For a hot minute in the bottom of the first, it looked like the warmest night at The Rate in recent memory was going to turn into a slugfest that went both ways. It's just that the only slug the White Sox could muster in response came from their most contact-oriented hitter. Chase Meidroth uppercutted offspeed offerings from Tigers starter Jack Flaherty in each of his first two trips to the plate. The first eluded Riley Greene's leaping grasp at the wall for a leadoff double in the first. The second did not as Greene slid into the left field corner for an inning-ending grab in the third. Neither led to runs, and Flaherty completed six innings of one-run ball with minimal trouble.
The only Sox run came when Austin Slater followed a Meidroth single in the sixth with a 402-foot drive to center that also fell just short of clearing the fence for a double. The Tigers cleared the wall five times for their efforts, but Vinny Capra's RBI groundout scored Meidroth to spoil the shutout.
Capra now has as many pitching appearances as hits in a White Sox uniform after working the top of the ninth. He sat in the low-50s and recorded the only 1-2-3 inning the Sox enjoyed all night.
Bullet points:
*Cannon now has a 11.88 ERA against the Tigers in four starts against them, allowing seven homers in 16 2/3 innings. Dylan Cease ain't walking through that door!
*Dingler lost hold of infield pop while sliding on his knees near the White Sox dugout in the fifth, only for the carom to fly into Zach McKinstry glove for the out. As moments from this night go, it was pretty representative.
*The Sox are 3-14 against Detroit since the start of 2024. At least when the Bears go 3-14 they get something out of it.
*Vargas and Benintendi got early subs out amid the bloodshed.
*Meidroth pulled off a stylish jump throw on a Torres grounder to the five-six hole in the sixth. With the way the night went, it should surprise no one to know it was an RBI groundout. Meidroth also walked, had two of the Sox' five hits and scored their only run. He's a keeper.
