DETROIT -- The audience here at Sox Machine probably wouldn't regard it as a shame, but Tarik Skubal's days in Detroit could be limited, right when his relationship with the White Sox seems to be getting interesting.
Ultimately a showdown between a guy who has won the AL ERA title twice and Brandon Eisert opening for Erick Fedde became a low-scoring game swung by a Kerry Carpenter two-run double off the latter. But the efforts to shield Fedde from the left-handed slugger ran into just as many problems as the genuine article, while Skubal departed an out shy of a quality start, with an ERA over 3.00, and his performance that will primarily be remembered for him yelling at a man in a wizard hat.
Sox hitters hunting Skubal's changeup of all pitches produced go-ahead pull-side solo shots in the first inning from an expected source in Randal Grichuk, and a shocking one in Junior Pérez to put the Sox up 3-2 in the sixth, with the latter two innings after he had collected his first big league hit.
Yet a laborious 26-pitch fifth where a Tristan Peters game-tying RBI fielder's choice was the only tally provided the real fireworks. Peters grounder was the only interruption in singles from Sam Antonacci, Luisangel Acuña and Miguel Vargas to open the inning, before Grichuk worked Skubal's first three-ball count of the night, and eventually his first walk to load the bases with one out.
After Chase Meidroth chopped a high changeup into a forceout at the plate, something better resembling the two-time Cy Young award winner returned. Skubal both struck out Colson Montgomery for the third time on the night to end the threat, and also immediately began pointing and screaming at the White Sox dugout, with Mike Vasil's wand-waving, wizarding ways apparently drawing his ire. If Antonacci hanging over the top rail of the dugout and yelling, or Vasil's celebration after Pérez's homer was any indication, the Sox remained defiant.
Speaking of which, Sox leadership have more conviction in their opener strategy than single-game results, or even Brandon Eisert's ERA spiking to 5.50 will sway them out of, but they're certainly seeing lineups that are countering it. With Kerry Carpenter shifted down to sixth, Eisert had already allowed a single to the right-handed Dillon Dingler and seen the right-handed Matt Vierling blast a down-and-in heater out to center for a two-run shot that staked Skubal to an early 2-1 lead in the first, even if he did strike out lefties Kevin McGonigle and Riley Greene on his way there.
In the irony of ironies, Carpenter would still be the one to mar Erick Fedde's final line, one out shy of completing five innings of scoreless, sweeper-heavy work. Already leaking oil while protecting a one-run lead in the sixth, Fedde was alternating outs with baserunners. A Dingler single was followed by a Vierling fly out, a Greene walk followed by Spencer Torkelson popping up a meaty looking sweeper to set up the bogeyman the Sox usually avoid facing with right-handers if they can swing it.
To that point, Fedde got Carpenter to pop up a cutter well above the zone into short center. But Peters was shaded like one of the preeminent power threats in the division was at the plate, and his effort to bridge the gap hurt more than it helped. Both runners scored as Peters' dive ended well short of heroism, and Grichuk's two-out automatic double in the seventh was the last Sox runner in scoring position.
Bullet points:
*The Sox went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. The Tigers went 1-for-6, and it really counted.
*Edgar Quero drilled a middle-middle Skubal changeup 415 feet to dead center for his (Statcast estimated) farthest hit ball of the season. Vierling corralled it with a leaping catch at the wall. He looked as frustrated as that sentence read. His threat-annihilating GIDP in the eighth was decently struck as well.
*Pérez lined a 98 mph Skubal fastball to right for his first major league hit with two outs in the top of the fourth. He was thrown out trying to steal second base on the next pitch to end the inning. That was also a major league first, but he topped them both later.
*Vargas started a pair of beautiful 3-6-3 double plays in the seventh and eighth, for all the first base defense lovers out there.
