The hope was that, with Munetaka Murakami belting a three-run homer off Framber Valdez, the White Sox might be able to create some breathing room for their beleaguered bullpen by the time it had to enter the fray.
Instead, those were the only runs the White Sox scored, and Will Venable ended up using Grant Taylor for the final 2⅓ innings.
The good news is Taylor broke his four-game streak of being scored upon, even pitching around a Luisangel Acuña mistake in the ninth inning to convert another long save. It helped that the Tigers ran into a pair of costly outs at third base that brought the eighth and ninth innings to a close, but at this point of the season it's all about surviving and advancing, and the White Sox are back in first place.
The game couldn't have started any better, with Chase Meidroth and Tommy Pham greeting Valdez with a single and a walk. A pair of outs jeopardized the rally, and Murakami figured to be easy pickings against a lefty. But Valdez started him off with a middle-middle sinker, and Murakami hit it how he was pitched, sending it over the center field wall for a three-run shot.
That turned out to be the only White Sox hit, as they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position the rest of the way. They had runners on first and second with one out in the fourth inning, but a pair of groundouts ended the threat. Brenton Doyle was stranded at second under similar circumstnaces in the sixth, and a one-out triple by Murakami went no further, as Doyle struck out and Rogers flied out.
Tristan Peters and Kyle Teel were both available to hit, but Venable instead used Peters to replace Randal Grichuk in left for the ninth. Prioritizing defense over offense seemed like a weird call there, not just because of the run, but because Grichuk made a pair of key plays in support of his pitchers.
Erick Fedde once again delivered 4 ⅔ innings of quality run prevention, allowing just a single run on a productive out to mitigate the damage from a big bases-loaded threat in the third. But Grichuk saved Fedde a run on the way out when he played Gleyber Torres' wall ball efficiently enough to limit him to a single with two outs in the fifth, which meant he couldn't score on Dillon Dingler's double in the same direction. Bryan Hudson entered and struck out Riley Greene to strand the runners, and the Sox still led 3-1.
Hudson then gave up a shot along the left field line to Spencer Torkelson leading off the sixth, but Grichuk retrieved it and fired an on-the-fly strike to Chase Meidroth, who applied an easy tag on an unsuspecting Torkelson for the first out. Hudson then retired the other two batters to face the minimum over his 1⅓ innings.
Jordan Hicks took over for the seventh, and that's where things got hairy. He struck out John Peck and Javier Báez for two outs, but he needed 15 pitches to do it, and the inefficiency turned out to be the bigger clue. Kevin McGonigle muscled a soft liner to the right part of the infield for a single, but then Hicks walked Gleyber Torres, and that's when Venable smashed the glass for Taylor.
He got Dingler to hit a hard grounder right at Acuña to strand Hicks' runners, but he'd need Detroit's help in getting the next two third outs. In the eighth, he walked Brett Callahan with two outs, then got Max Clark to hit a chopper to third. The high hop took Miguel Vargas back, and by the time he could get his momentum toward first, the resulting throw was late. However, Callahan continued on toward third, and Murakami recovered in time to make a throw in that direction. Vargas again had to leap for it, and while his tag attempt was initially ruled unsuccessful, the video review saw glove hitting foot or leg before foot hit bag.
Because Venable challenged both plays, crew chief Mark Wegner buried the lede by starting with the inconsequential outcome, which confused players, fans and broadcasters alike.
"After review, the call of safe is confirmed -- the call at first is safe. The call at third is overturned, that runner is out."
On the White Sox broadcast, John Schriffen responded by bellowing "LET'S GO!", as 85 percent of millennial men do. On the Detroit broadcast, Jason Benetti criticized Wegner's delivery, saying, "That is a ridiculous way-- that's like the doctor on Arrested Development. I mean, why in the world would you say that like that for? The inning's over ... what?"
But that wasn't the only late-inning Tiger TOOTBLAN. In the ninth, Colt Keith drew a one-out walk on a challenge, then advanced to second when Acuña knocked down another weird McGonigle one-hopper, but missed the opportunity to get Keith at second since he froze, and instead was late on his throw to first. But Keith repaid the favor one batter later when Torres hit a grounder to third. Instead of freezing again and drawing out a rundown or resigning the third baseman to a force, Keith tried running past Vargas, but Vargas was able to more conclusively apply a tag this time, and with time to fire to first for a game-ending 5-3 double play.
It might not be pretty or sustainable, but that's how the White Sox ended up clawing back into first place. They have the same record as the Guardians, but since they own the tiebreaker, they're effectively a half-game up.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox also won the season series against Detroit with tonight's win. That tiebreaker won't matter, but it means they took season series from all four AL Central opponents.
*The Tigers outhit the White Sox 8-5 and had a 6-4 advantage in free bases, but made three outs on the basepaths and went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
*Murakami's two-hit game was just his second out of his last 44, dating back to Aug. 1.
