White Sox 6, Tigers 4: Again, Andrew Vaughn steps up in seventh

White Sox win

Another day, another hard-fought victory over the Tigers courtesy of another game-winning single by Andrew Vaughn.

Vaughn came through in two outs in the seventh inning for the second straight night. This time, he stayed on a Joe Jimenez slider and bouncing it back through the middle to score José Abreu that put the Sox ahead for good. Reynaldo López pitched a scoreless eighth and Liam Hendriks worked around a single and a walk in the ninth, with an AJ Pollock solo shot providing a cushion.

Lucas Giolito ended up getting the win, which didn’t seem all that likely when the White Sox fell behind 3-1 after two, and 4-3 after three. The three-spot in the second inning all happened after two outs, and it involved a 3-2 pitch he didn’t get, a bleeder through the middle and a bases-clearing double that Eloy Jiménez followed poorly until it bounced on the warning track.

The fourth run was a more traditional quick hit, as Giolito gave up a one-out single and an RBI double to Eric Haase. Considering Giolito needed a brilliant play from Yoán Moncada to escape danger in the first — he dived to catch Harold Castro’s liner, then caught Javier Báez miles away from first base for a double play — it had all the makings of a limited and frustrating night.

But then Giolito retired the next 12 he faced, and when Akil Baddoo singled with one out in the top of the seventh, he rebounded by snagging Riley Greene’s comebacker and starting a 1-6-3 double play. He needed only 39 pitches to navigate through his final four innings, giving him a reasonable pitch count of 92 over seven innings.

The White Sox offense was similarly resilient, at least early. They scored first, capitalizing on the same situation the Tigers had (runners on the corners, one out) with an Abreu sac fly. When the Tigers responded with three, the Sox answered with two. Gavin Sheets thwarted the shift with a double where a third baseman would usually stand, scored on Leury García’s single, and then García scored after a Josh Harrison single and a Pollock sac fly.

When the Tigers reclaimed the lead in the top of the third, the Sox retied it by the bottom of the fourth. García led off with a single, and when Matt Manning responded with two outs over four pitches, he then walked Moncada to extend the inning. That’s when Jiménez extended his hitting streak with a single to center that made it 4-4.

Both offenses then went dormant until Abreu generated a threat with his legs. He reached on an infield single when Javier Báez couldn’t come up cleanly with a sliding stop. Abreu grimaced as he stepped on first, but perhaps he was hustling in the other fashion, for when Yasmani Grandal followed with a deep drive to center, Abreu tagged up and tested Riley Greene’s arm.

Greene made a strong throw, and Báez made one of his quick tags, but Abreu was called safe at second, and it withstood a lengthy review. Báez definitely would’ve had Abreu out if he kept the tag on him, because the force of Abreu’s slide carried him past the base ever so slightly, but he was busy telling the Tiger dugout to review the play.

Either way, Abreu’s legs were fine, and he had no problem sprinting home when Vaughn bounced the breaking ball through the middle. A.J. Hinch then was ejected during the pitching change for debating the reviewed call with second-base umpire Jerry Layne, and pretty quickly at that.

Bullet points:

*López pitched on back-to-back nights while Kendall Graveman did not, with Joe Kelly still unavailable. He topped 100 once, and rounded up to 100 with his final pitch (99.7).

*García went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, which is a valuable performance when Lenyn Sosa is struggling.

*The Sox gained a game on Cleveland, and are now 2½ back.

*The game only took two hours and 46 minutes despite 24 hits (20 singles), which is some good pace of play.

Record: 58-56 | Box score | Statcast

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itaita

Was nice to enjoy a more “normal” baseball win. That missed ump call sucked however. I dont know if the numbers back it up but all around the league it seems like the ball/strike calls are pretty bad and the ump’s are picking a bad time to do this with the robot umps kicking around the minors. Normally i would be against something like that but if the calls are getting more erratic then i could see the positives of it.

a-t

Tiger Balm: a salve for many ills.

LamarHoyt_oncrack

If the other 28 were eliminated and the only two MLB teams were the Tigers and Sox, I think there is probably a 60 percent chance that your 2022 White Sox would be World Champions.

Joliet Orange Sox

I’m watching the end of the Twins – Angels game. The Twins led 3-0 going into the bottom of the eighth but Ohtani hit a homer in the bottom of the 8th (that would have been a home in only one MLB park – the one it was hit in) and then new Twins closer López gave up two in the bottom of the 9th to send it to extras.

The Angels in the bottom of the 10th made a weird decision to bunt the Manford Man over knowing it would lead to Ohtani being intentionally walked. Then Buxton made a great catch and in center and threw Ohtani out as he tried to get back to first because he had ran on the pitch ending the inning.

On to the 11th…

Last edited 1 year ago by Joliet Orange Sox

Emilio Pagan is a treasure.

a-t

The gift that keeps on giving. I remain convinced that Minnesota will finish in 3rd place in the division due to their bullpen of wonders

Last edited 1 year ago by a-t
ParisSox

I saw fire. It manifests itself in hustle and good fundamental baseball. Hustling to first, hustling to balls in the gap, getting it back in quickly to the cutoff man (looking at you Pollock, positively). Patient at bats, not swinging at the pitcher pitches. This was a pleasure to watch.

ParisSox

With that said, when Detroit brought in a left hander to face Sheets, LaRussa didn’t pinch hit for him and he predictably struck out. Then Tony sent out Engel as a defensive replacement.

Why not pinch hit Engel for Sheets there? If you want to play championship baseball, you have to take advantage of every opportunity.

I swear I think Engel must have insulted LaRussa’s dog or something.

itaita

Maybe Tony asked for a pair of Engel’s cleats but he declined and put him in the dog house for it.

soxygen

It really is so strange. I assume Engel is healthy. My best guess is that TLR has some strange misguided notion about saving Engel for late-inning defense that blinds him to the opportunities he has to deploy Engel earlier (as a starter or pinch hitter). But it is one of the stranger patterns we’ve seen this year.

metasox

Engel would be a better choice than Sheets. But Engel has had weird reverse splits in La Russa’s 2 seasons. Maybe Engel just hasn’t made an impression to hit in that role.

metasox

Glancing at Engels stats, he also hasn’t distinguished himself recently. 3 H, 12 K in his last 24 AB

soxygen

No argument there, but I have waited a long time this year for Leury Garcia, Yasmani Grandal, and Yoan Moncada to distinguish themselves at the plate!

upnorthsox

Moncada’s replacement is Leury so……….

Yaz is like me and Lotto, keep playing but don’t even check numbers anymore.

upnorthsox

Yep I think its really on Engel as to why he’s not getting playing time. Tony is desperate enough for a hot bat atm that if Engel was providing one he’d be playing. I think its Pollock who’s taking time away from him, he’s hitting .290 with an .850 ops in his last 20 games and playing all 3 positions.