A White Sox pitcher completed six innings for the first time in 27 games, and at no expense to anything but the gray hair count on Will Venable's head.
Burke had to minimize the damage from a pair of bases loaded situations in his final two innings of work, but he was able to get through two-thirds of the game with just one run allowed, while a White Sox that was limited to just four hits converted every opportunity it generated. Basically, it was the photo negative image of the average White Sox game from the past three weeks, and it was enough to mask the aftertaste from the team's most painful loss of the season the night before.
Burke only needed 30 pitches through three innings and 44 pitches through four, but just like David Sandlin on Friday, what came after inflicted a toll. A one-out full-count plunking of Ben Malgeri in the fifth turned into the bases loaded after a solid single and walk, which turned over the lineup to Kevin McGonigle.
McGonigle drove in four runs on Friday, but Burke was able to limit him to a routine fly to left, and while it drove home a Detroit run that tied the game at 1, Burke rallied to strike out Hao-Yu Lee to escape with no further harm done.
The following inning truly put Venable in a tough spot. Burke issued a pair of two-out walks to once again load the bases, bringing lefty Brett Callahan to the plate. Although Venable had a reliever ready, neither choice was enviable. He could either stick with Burke and hope that his flagging starter could summon one last burst of command, or he could go to Noah Schultz, a rookie with barely any relief experience, and hope that he'd immediately execute his pitches with no margin for error.
He stuck with Burke, and for a moment, it backfired. A 2-1 curve enticed a sword out of Callahan, but kicked away from Kyle Teel for a run-scoring wild pitch ... until the White Sox asked for a review, which showed the ball hitting off Callahan's leg, which is a dead ball when the batter swings. The challenge succeeded, the runners returned to their bases with a 2-2 count, and while Callahan fought off one knuckle curve, he took a second at the top of the zone, and Burke strode off the field temporarily victorious.
He still needed the bullpen to see the win all the way through, and two relievers got the job done. Schultz came on for a fresh inning and pitched around a one-out McGonigle single for a scoreless seventh. He didn't make it through the eighth, but Venable had more say in the matter this time. Schultz alternated bases and outs -- a Riley Greene HBP, a Dillon Dingler backwards K, a soft Max Clark single, a Malgeri popout -- and if Venable stuck with him to face Eduardo Valencia, it would've been a defensible call.
Instead, he opted for Grant Taylor, who got Valencia to ground into a 3-1 putout to end the eighth, then stranded a Lee two-out single by getting Spencer Torkelson to fly out to Brenton Doyle to end the game. (Granted, Randal Grichuk nearly bumped into Doyle due to a lack of communication, but they can treat it as a cautionary tale.)
Thanks to the stout pitching effort, three single tallies by an otherwise handcuffed offense was more than enough.
Miguel Vargas bookended the effort. He drew a two-out walk off Jackson Jobe in the first, stole second, then scored on a bloop single by Munetaka Murakami for a quick 1-0 lead.
After the Tigers tied it up with a sac fly in the top of the fifth, the White Sox used it as inspiration in the bottom of the inning. Braden Montgomery bounced a drive off the warning track and over the fence for a leadoff double, and while he had to hold up to make sure Doyle's line drive cleared a leaping McGonigle and only advanced to third on a single, Sam Antonacci cashed him in with a deep sac fly to left, restoring the White Sox's one-run lead.
An inning later, Vargas ambushed Jobe's first pitch of the sixth, a slider of the middle of the plate, for his 33rd homer of the season and some insurance that, while unnecessary, was greatly appreciated.
In the non-scoring innings, the White Sox tallied just two baserunners -- Kyle Teel reaching on a Colt Keith error and a Chase Meidroth HBP -- and the latter was erased by a double play. The White Sox had just two at-bats with runners in scoring position, but they went 2-for-2, and that was good enough to win by two.
Bullet points:
*Along with the offensive exploits, Vargas helped out Burke with his glove, stealing an RBI single for Dingler with a diving stop on a one-hop rocket to end the fourth.
*Burke reached 10 wins on the season, and Taylor 10 saves.
*The White Sox struck out 12 times, but half were from Andrew Benintendi and Colson Montgomery, both of whom struck out all three trips from the fifth and sixth spots.
*Rain started moving in during the final inning, so the White Sox were right to move the game up to an afternoon start, no matter the risk it posed to a relief corps run ragged.
