After their first series win in a week, the Detroit Tigers hit the road to take on the Chicago White Sox. Chris Paddack faced off against opener Elvis Peguero and then starter Tyler Alexander. It took a long time, including an hour long rain delay that interrupted the top of the ninth inning, but when the rains finally cleared, Will Vest closed it out for a 2-1 Tigers victory.
The first inning opened with 3 straight strikeouts for Detroit’s batters. AJ Hinch put together an unorthodox lineup to try and counter the righty opener into a lefty bulk man; it did not pay off in the first. Gleyber Torres, Kerry Carpenter and Wenceel Perez all K’d.
Paddack had a solid first inning as well. A one-out single was erased on a line drive double play. For his mediocre stuff to play optimally, Paddack needs to pound strikes around the edges of the zone and get good defense behind him. So far, so good.
In the second, the Tigers started cooking. Riley Greene roped a double down the first base line and Andy Ibanez followed with a single off the pitcher’s leg. Of course, a TOOTBLAN immediately followed as Ibanez got caught stealing second for the second out in what seemed like an odd time to be running. Dingler picked him up, though, lining a single to right for the 1-0 lead. At this point, Alexander came into the game and got Zack McKinstry to end the inning.
Paddack continued pounding the zone. His fastball was landing on the corners to set up his secondaries off the plate to much success. Louis Robert Jr grounded out, then the rookie Colson Montgomery got frozen on a low fastball for strike three, Paddack’s first of the night. A second-pitch popout had Paddack at 23 pitches through 2 uneventful innings.
Alexander had himself a 1-2-3 second inning of work. He had the unlikely success of striking out Torres for the second time in his two at-bats and got Carpenter to ground out. That made four up, four down, for the former Tiger.
In the bottom of the third, Paddack earned himself 2 more strikeouts after a leadoff single. A nasty curve saw the bottom fall out on Michael A Taylor, while Brooks Baldwin was overmatched by 94 up in the zone. A popup to left followed to end it.
The fourth presented a bit of a missed opportunity for the Tigers. Singles from Perez and Spencer Torkelson started things off well. From there, Greene flew out and Ibanez struck out in his designed platoon-favored at bat. With two outs, Alexander pretty clearly pitched around Dingler, walking him to get to McKinstry, who flailed at strike three to leave the bases loaded. Hopefully, Detroit would survive.
13 pitches later and Paddack had finished his half of the fourth as well. He consistently got ahead, stayed ahead, and earned weak contact this far into the game, but hitters start to get an edge the deeper a pitcher works into the game. No matter so far, as the top of Chicago’s order went groundout, fly out, line out, but it’s always worth keeping an eye on, more so with such a limited arsenal.
He also got a nice play from Wenceel Pérez on a Benintendi fly ball that looked bound to touch grass toward the right field line.
Alexander seemed to be settling himself into the ballgame, going three up, three down. Torres struck out for the third time in five innings of baseball, a rather unusual sighting. It makes you wonder about that forearm issue from the Angels series, but for now, he’ll play through.
In the fifth, Paddack made his first mistake and watched it soar over the wall. An elevated 0-1 changeup over the middle is never a good idea, and the rookie Montgomery made him pay. The top prospect is off to a fantastic start to his career, with an .853 OPS and 9 HRs in the 31 games leading into today. Curtis Mead followed with a near-homer that leaned foul by the slimmest of margins, then struck out. Two more outs followed, but the game was tied 1-1 after 5.
Another inning, another three batters faced for Alexander. Tigers fans are familiar with him getting on a roll; at this point, it was just a matter of waiting him out and getting into the bullpen. The heart of Detroit’s lineup went down on 9 total pitches, none of which resulted in hard contact.
In his sixth inning of work, Paddack issued his first walk of the ballgame. Mike Tauchman worked him for 8 pitches before strolling to first. From there, Sosa pulled one to the warning track for Greene to track down, which marked Paddack’s last at-bat. Tyler Holton entered and jammed the lefty Andrew Benintendi; McKinstry made a great running catch to corral it behind second base.
Righty Steven Wilson came on for Alexander and had the privilege of facing Colt Keith off the bench. With his severe issues getting lefties out, Wilson naturally whiffed Keith on 4 pitches. Dingler battled before he, too, struck out, and McKinstry flew out to right for an easy inning.
Holton came back for the seventh inning, looking to keep things tied. He did. Robert popped out to Perez, then Montgomery struck out. Taylor battled before hooking a hard grounder to third; Keith came up with it and Torkelson made a smooth pick at first to complete the inning.
A new righty, Grant Taylor, came in for the top of the 8th. Baez squibbed a grounder through the right side for a leadoff single. Unfortunately, that meant Torres came up; he immediately grounded into a not-so-easy double play. Taylor got Carpenter to swing over a hard curve in the dirt for strike three and a very quiet inning for Chicago’s bullpen.
Holton’s quick work in the 7th earned him the start of the 8th. His job was to get the lefty catcher Kyle Teel, but he slapped a grounder against the shift for a leadoff infield single. Out came Holton, in came Kyle Finnegan. Taylor dropped a sac bunt to move Teel over, putting a runner on 2nd with one out. Then, Finnegan dropped a splitter on Baldwin for strike three; a hard grounder to third kept the tie intact.
Lefty Brandon Eisert came in for the 9th inning; he drew Perez, Torkelson and Greene while trying to keep the game knotted. Perez smashed one to shortstop for a leaping catch and the first out. Torkelson then took matters into his own hands and crushed a homer off the left field foul pole to put the Tigers in front!
Greene whiffed on a slider down, and in came Jahmai Jones. AJ Hinch’s carousel of hitters continued to rotate; Jones came in for Keith who had already come in for Ibanez. He promptly doubled to left. Instead of pitching around Dingler this time, they just intentionally walked him to get to McKinstry. Before that could happen, the heavens opened in a midwestern downpour and the game went into delay.
After a long rain delay stretching past 11:00 p.m ET, the game resumed with a 2-2 count and Cam Booser on the mound. Booser dropped in one breaking ball for a called strike three, and the top of the ninth was finally over. Tough night for Zach McKinstry against the lefties.
So, it was with a 2-1 lead that Will Vest took the mound looking to close this one out. He did a nice job of it, punching out Lenyn Sosa to start things off. Both Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr. grounded out, and we had ourselves another Tigers victory.