For the second Sunday at home this month, the White Sox spent the majority of the afternoon befuddled by the opponent's starting pitcher, only to be granted a reprieve when the bullpen entered seemingly sooner than necessary.
On Mother's Day, Mariners manager Dan Wilson pulled Logan Gilbert after six innings, even though Gilbert had thrown just 87 pitches and retired the last 16 batters he faced. The White Sox eventually tied it up with a homer off a right-handed reliever, then got another run across the plate for a 2-1 victory.
This time around, A.J. Hinch pulled an even more efficient Keider Montero after six innings, even though Montero had allowed just two hits and thrown a total of 65 pitches. The White Sox tied it up with a homer off a right-handed reliever, then got another run across the plate for a 2-1 victory, and a sweep of the Tigers at Rate Field.
"He was on his stuff, you know?" Colson Montgomery said of Montero. "It's the big leagues. That's stuff happens and guys are really good. Sometimes it's like he leaves and it's just 'All right, now this is our time to go,' kind of thing. Not saying we were happy to see him leave. But it's one of those things where he was dealing, he was on his stuff. But we're a team, we're not going to stop."
This time, it was Montgomery tying it up instead of Randal Grichuk, as Drew Anderson served up his second costly homer of the series to open the seventh. And just like Drew Romo started a rally in earnest Friday night with a subsequent double, Chase Meidroth singled to put a baserunner on, then scored on opposite-field singles by Jacob Gonzalez (his first career hit) and Tristan Peters, whose bouncer past Kevin McGonigle put the Sox ahead 2-1.
"I was just trying to keep the line moving," Gonzalez said. "I didn’t really think about it until José [Leger] at first said 'Congrats on your first hit.' I was like, oh yeah, that’s pretty cool."
Peters then got picked off to end the inning, which undermined Will Venable pinch-hitting Grichuk for Rikuu Nishida against new lefty Tyler Holton. It could've been a costly lack of insurance as the White Sox bullpen tried to nail down the game without its primary closing options, but Bryan Hudson and Tyler Davis teamed up to make it a moot point. Hudson handled the eighth by himself, then got the first out of the ninth via a running Miguel Vargas catch that sent him over the tarp and into the screen. Tyler Davis then came on to handle the righties, and succeeded by getting Matt Vierling to line out to left, and inducing a harmless popout by Wenceel Pérez to close the sweep.
"Just grateful for the for the opportunity, grateful that the coaches trusted me in that spot and grateful I could get the job done," said Davis, who didn't foresee the opportunity for his first career save. "When my name got called, really. I kind of started to have an idea as guys were being used. So, just staying ready for the opportunity."
The White Sox have won a season-high five in a row to put them a season-high five games over .500. The Tigers have lost four in a row, and are now a worst-in-baseball 22-38.
Barring some sort of injury, this loss will inspire some second-guessing, because Montero made simple work of the first six innings. The White Sox tried to counter his strike-throwing reptutation by attacking his attempts to get ahead, but they resulted in a lot of quick groundouts. He held the Sox to two hits, both of which came with two outs -- a Rikuu Nishida infield single in the third, a Peters double in the fifth, and Montero needed a total of three pitches to end the two innings.
"Montero pitched well," Peters said. "We just stayed in the fight. That's all we can do. We see the bullpen as an opportunity to jump on somebody who is maybe not as locked in as the starter."
Sean Burke played the role of Davis Martin in that Mother's Day game against the Mariners by keeping the White Sox in this one. Kevin McGonigle pounced on a first-pitch sinker for a one-out single, and was off and running on a full count when Spencer Torkelson doubled on a thigh-high slider to give Detroit a 1-0 lead, but Burke held the line right there. He fell into deeper counts than Montero, but at least took advantage of them by racking up six strikeouts over 5 ⅓ innings. He had a lot of life on his fastball, maintaining good location toward the top and above the zone, and generated eight whiffs on 19 swings that way. He couldn't quite get the whiffs on his breaking balls, particularly his slider, which ate into his efficiency.
Still, he was effective enough to keep the Tigers off the board over the rest of his afternoon, which carried into the sixth inning, and the White Sox bullpen continued to post scoreless innings without Grant Taylor, Seranthony Domínguez or Sean Newcomb.
"I love playing for this group, I love the guys in there," Burke said. "I look forward every single day to coming to the ballpark. This year there's day where I go to bed and I'm so excited to pitch the next day with the way the fans are showing up and the way we're playing. I wake up every day and thank God that I get to play with the Chicago White Sox."
The recently recalled Chris Murphy entered with one out and one on in the sixth, and although he complicated matters by walking the first batter he faced, Meidroth erased it with a clean pick on a hot shot to start a 4-6-3 double play.
Murphy could have been in line for the win were he able to complete the seventh, but while he erased a leadoff walk with a pickoff, a two-out walk -- Murphy's third over five batters -- prompted Will Venable to call for Brandon Eisert, and striking out the only batter he faced was good enough to vulture a victory.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox went 6-1 on the homestand against two AL Central opponents.
*You wanted a winning month? Well, the White Sox just closed out an 18-10 May.
*Gonzalez went 1-for-3 in his major league debut. His two flyouts against Montero represented the best contact against him.
*Derek Hill hasn't been seen since he was scratched with upper back tightness, but the Sox say he's day-to-day.
*Montgomery was confident postgame:
"Everyone's mindset is that we are a playoff-caliber team. The only way to kind of show that is to go out there and do it, go out there and earn everything. Play our butts off every single day and that's all it comes down to."
