Maybe it unfolded in an unnecessarily arduous fashion, but if you told Will Venable that a true bullpen game would limit the Tigers to four runs without any of the high-leverage arms getting involved, he'd probably take it.
"Joe Rock coming in and doing a nice job getting that out with the bases loaded [in the fourth], and then maybe a couple of the lefties that he faced we would have liked for him to handle and get out," Venable said. "But overall, our pitching staff did a good enough job to keep us in that ballgame."
Instead, it was the offense that dropped the ball. Sam Antonacci started the game with a homer on Troy Melton's second pitch, and at that point -- as well as the rest of the game -- he accounted for all the damage against the Tigers, who eventually wore down the front end of the White Sox bullpen after a fantastic opening act from Sean Newcomb.
Antonacci had a perfect game at the plate, going 2-for-2 with both hits cracking 100 mph, along with a walk and an HBP. The rest of the lineup went 2-for-29, and both hits weren't terribly convincing. Braden Montgomery's shank off the end of the bat stayed fair for a hustle double in the seventh inning, and Chase Meidroth dropped a bunt single in an attempt to get something going in the ninth. Alas, the tying run stayed on deck, the White Sox have lost four of five, and they'll need to once again win a finale to avoid a sweep.
Otherwise, it was a whole bunch of unimpressive contact from unconvincing swings. Sox hitters tried an aggressive tack, but it mostly produced quick outs or unfavorable counts. Melton went six innings, Tyler Holton threw two, and Kenley Jansen closed it out with a total of 115 pitches.
"He just filled it up, he competed early on," Antonacci said of Melton. "He made that fist mistake in the first but he was mixing in every pitch he had. Hat’s off to him. I feel like we have to do a better job of stringing together some stuff and putting together a little better ABs."
At one point, Melton was the lesser performing pitcher, as Newcomb retired all nine batters he faced on 42 pitches, completing one-third of a bullpen game. But things started breaking down when Tyler Davis entered and kept missing with fastballs glove-side. He ended up walking three of the five batters he faced, and Rock was required to leave them loaded.
"That's kind of his capacity there," Venable said of Newcomb's usage. "I thought we actually pushed him further we were really comfortable with and had gameplanned for, especially coming out of the New York series where he took that ball of the elbow."
"It felt perfect to me," Newcomb said. "It was more pitch count-based. 42 pitches, that’s probably in my comfortable zone right now, having not been too built up. Good efficient three [innings]. I was hoping for that, so that was good."
Rock seemed well-positioned to get through the fifth when Zach McKinstry came to the plate with two outs and nobody on. But Rock lost an eight-pitch battle to the .166-hitting ninth hitter to turn over the lineup, and Detroit capitalized. Kevin McGonigle singled, and so did Dillon Dingler, whose base hit tied the game at 1.
An inning later, the Tigers untied it. Spencer Torkelson smoked a double to the wall right of center with one out and came around when James Outman's scorched grounder got past Antonacci's diving attempt. Outman took second on Braden Montgomery's ill-advised throw home, and the 90 feet was costly, as he moved to third on a flyout to right, then scored on Jake Rogers' solid single to make it a 3-1 game.
Dingler then put the exclamation point on the Tigers' effort offensively, greeting Trevor Richards with a 430-foot homer to left center.
Bullet points:
*The total line for the White Sox bullpen: 8 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 7 K, 1 HR.
*Antonacci made a great leaping catch to help Newcomb out in the first, but he could only deflect a couple of grounders at the end of his range to his left. Maybe Meidroth doesn't make both of those plays, but he might make one of them.
"I like to think I was a good basketball player," Antonacci said. "So, I kind of want to go try and dunk now."
Asked if he ever dunked in high school, Antonacci replied "Hell no."
*The 2-3-4-5 part of the lineup after Antonacci went 0-for-16 with four strikeouts. Miguel Vargas had an off day, going 0-for-4 on a total of nine pitches, including a three-pitch strikeout with Antonacci on second and two outs in the third.
*Venable affirmed that Grant Taylor was available on Saturday.
"With as special as Grant is and want to make sure we're using him in the right spots," Venable said. "Those just really haven't come up in the last few days."
