The White Sox have executed alternate pitching strategies well enough this season that the effectiveness of an Elvis Peguero-Tyler Alexander 1-2 punch couldn't be dismissed out of hand. And indeed, while Peguero was scored upon in his second inning of work, but Tyler Alexander once again stepped up with outstanding bulk work to put the White Sox in position to steal a win.
"Those guys did an outstanding job and kept us in the game," Will Venable said. "We couldn’t muster anything offensively and they gave us a chance there throughout the game. We’re in a tough spot bullpen-wise, we needed to get outs and guys do their job and they did that tonight."
If only the offense cooperated.
Instead, a Chris Paddack-led effort from the Detroit staff limited the White Sox to another resonant Colson Montgomery home run, allowing Spencer Torkelson's foul pole-shaking blast off Brandon Eisert before a rain delay in the top of the ninth to decide the series opener.
Eisert took the mound for the ninth inning as the White Sox's fifth pitcher of the evening, and he was the proverbial Guy Who Didn't Have It. Montgomery was able to use his height to snag Wenceel Perez's line drive for the first out, but after Eisert started Torkelson with a changeup off the plate, he tried to come up and in with a fastball.
Unfortunately for Eisert, it was only sort of up, and not nearly in enough, and Torkelson turned on it with enough authority that the only question was whether it would remain fair. A clank off the foul pole informed everybody of the outcome, and the Tigers led 2-1.
Eisert recovered to strike out Riley Greene, but Jahmai Jones smoked a double to keep the inning alive. The skies then opened up after an intentional walk to Dillon Dingler, and four pitches into Zach McKinstry's plate appearance, the rain proved dangerous, and out came the grounds crew.
Cam Booser recorded the strikeout with one pitch once play resumed after a 63-minute delay, but the White Sox couldn't take advantage of the break. Will Vest struck out Lenyn Sosa, then got Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr. to ground out for his 17th save of the season.
The White Sox played two of the three phases well. The six Sox pitchers combined for line they'll take every time -- 9 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 13 K -- and some fine defense from Sosa of all people helped their cause. In the second inning, he successfully foiled a first-and-third steal attempt. Kyle Teel threw through, and while Andy Ibañez tried backtracking to first, Sosa chased him back to first while keeping enough of an eye on Greene at third, and the Tigers ran themselves into a second out. It was a nice play in a situation where the White Sox have been pantsed before, even if a subsequent Dingler RBI single devalued the play slightly.
In the eighth, Javier Báez muscled a single through the right side against Grant Taylor to lead off the inning, but before his presence on the basepaths could make itself known, the White Sox turned a tricky 4-6-3 double play on Gleyber Torres' first-pitch grounder to clean the slate. The play required a on-target feed from a spinning Sosa after ranging toward first, and Montgomery's best possible throw to make up time, and both held up their end of the bargain.
"His defense has been incredible lately," Montgomery said of Sosa. "He’s a really good defender too. Same thing with Grant, great pitcher, trying to do everything we can to stop the momentum and get outs."
The White Sox offense was the weak link. They only had two at-bats with runners in scoring position, and both came in the eighth after Teel reached on an infield single. Michael A. Taylor bunted him to second after A.J. Hinch called for the right-handed Kyle Finnegan, but Brooks Baldwin struck out and Mike Tauchman's grounder to the left side found a Colt Keith shifted perfectly to kill the threat.
The White Sox managed just three other hits and a walk otherwise. Montgomery provided the lone highlight in the fifth when Paddack left an 0-1 changeup thigh-high over the heart of the plate, and Montgomery sizzled a 109.4-mph line drive inside the right field foul pole, and after a couple of caroms, into Section 108 to tie the game at 1.
"I’m trying to hit a low line drive to the shortstop, keeps me tighter to the ball," Montgomery said. "Not really a normal home run swing. I feel like a lot of the hitters can tell you if they tried doing home run swings it’s probably not going to work."
Bullet points:
*Peguero's White Sox debut captured the duality of the experience. He struck out the side in the first, but his location started loosening in the second, resulting in three hits and the first Detroit run.
"I think the last time I started was 2018 with the Yankees," Peguero said via interpreter. "But ever since I knew I was starting today, my focus was on taking this game as a reliever. I wasn't thinking anything else about it."
*Alexander got the game through six by throwing 4⅓ scoreless innings for the second consecutive outing. HIs combined line: 8.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 10 K. His White Sox ERA is now 2.59, even though the White Sox are 4-13 in games he pitches.
*Sox pitching did a great job of quieting the top of the Detroit order. Torres struck out three times before the double play, and Kerry Carpenter was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
