Tigers 11, White Sox 5: Pitching worn out before and during
After a doubleheader in which Alex Colomé and Aaron Bummer both pitched twice and Evan Marshall handled two innings by himself, Rick Renteria had a choice between sticking with Reynaldo López and trusting the front end of his bullpen.
He chose the former, and that wasn’t good. But neither was the bullpen effort that started with Juan Minaya. As a result, the Tigers scored double-digits for just the third time all season, and the second time against the Sox, to avoid the sweep.
López retired the first nine he faced, then gave up runs in each of the following three innings. The Tigers started attacking his fastball, and none of his offspeed stuff had staying power.
The first run wasn’t López’s fault. He gave up a dinky single through the left side, and then Daniel Palka — playing first because Yolmer Sánchez had his hand stepped on and forced Jose Rondón to shift to second during Jose Abreu’s day at DH — didn’t catch López pickoff throw. It wasn’t a good throw in terms of getting an out, but Palka should’ve just caught it instead of attempting to apply a sweep tag. Victor Reyes went from first to third and scored on a Nicholas Castellanos single for an unearned run.
The rest was on López in all senses of the word. He gave up three consecutive singles en route to two runs in the fifth, then gave up four more runs in the sixth while only retiring one batter. All four hits went for extra bases on different pitches — the first double on a slider, the second double on a curveball, the third double on a changeup, capped off by a homer on a fastball.
If the bullpen were on normal rest, perhaps Renteria would’ve gone to the bullpen two batters into the inning. As it stood, the bullpen wasn’t any more effective with the exception of Jace Fry, who struck out the side in his inning. Juan Minaya gave up a pair of runs before the sixth inning ended, although Charlie Tilson’s first diving attempt of the inning turned into a double thanks to too cautious a break (the second one worked and recorded the third out). Kelvin Herrera allowed an unearned run in the eighth because of a Yoan Moncada throwing error came around to score on a Castellanos double, and Josh Osich gave up a solo shot in the ninth.
That took some of the heat off the White Sox offense, which didn’t mount the prettiest effort. The Sox struck out 16 times against one walk — 13 times over 5⅓ innings against Matthew Boyd — and went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
That said, they also managed to post 13 hits around those 16 strikeouts, including a two-run homer by Rondón that snapped an 0-for-18 streak and gave the Sox their only lead, as well as a moon shot by Eloy Jiménez.
Jiménez also came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, and the Sox trailing 9-4. He hit a fly to left field and watched it out of the box — but because it was hit off the end of the bat and he had a runner in front of him. The grand-slam-looking swing only created an ordinary sac fly that made it a 9-5 game, and the Sox couldn’t get another big hit to draw any closer.
Bullet points:
*Palka went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, didn’t catch López’s pickoff throw, then got turned around on a pop-up in right-field foul territory. It would’ve been a tough play for any first baseman, but the game is picking on him right now.
*Leury García went 4-for-5 at the top of the order, but Moncada and Jose Abreu went 2-for-9 with six strikeouts behind him.
*López’s ERA rose to 6.34, and his next start will be his ninth with an ERA over 6.
*Jiménez made a leaping catch against the wall to rob Castellanos of a homer, the latest evidence that his worst defensive days are behind him.
Record: 41-43 | Box score | Highlights
Let Lopez finish the year out as a starter. But assuming it keeps going like this I want to see what he would look like as a 2-3 inning reliever next season. There’s a lot of value in a fireman type and his stuff would play up. Especially with the number of young guys in this rotation who can’t exactly be counted on being economical with their outings (Cease, Kopech at least), having a guy like that would make a lot of sense.
(I think this is what we are all hoping Fulmer eventually provides but the time is running out for him to figure that out.)
He already throws pretty hard and still gets hit hard. Success is more likely to come from retooling the action on his fastball which has lost run over the last several years.
Yeah, I think he needs to re-work his grip as well as look into the possibility he’s tipping his pitches.
Lopez has been absolutely putrid, but I agree they should let him continue starting. This season isn’t headed towards a playoff appearance anyway, and there’s nobody available to replace him anyway. Maybe he can figure something out. If that doesn’t happen by the end of the year, send him to whoever Giolito worked with last winter.
I think Covey’s available and ready to replace López right now.
Shocked you didn’t mention Eloy robbing a home run. Simply because it was so shocking to see it.
@TCBullfrog Thanks for the reminder. It’s there now.
In a week or two he will have played more games at Sox Park than any other stadium with the possible exception of South Bend, which he’ll certainly surpass before the season is over. As he gets used to the parks he’ll settle in defensively just fine.