Chicago ― There never really was a knockout blow. But there were more than enough steady, sharp jabs from the White Sox to leave Jack Flaherty and the Tigers dazed and wobbly and, eventually, finished.
In the end, it was the White Sox who had their hand hoisted, slogging their way to an equal parts ugly and bizarre 9-6 victory over the Tigers on Tuesday night at Rate Field in what could fairly be described as root canal of a baseball game.
It took 3 hours and 23 minutes, making it the longest nine-inning game for Detroit in the pitch-clock era (since 2023). With eight pitchers, 367 pitches, 21 hits, nine walks, three errors, two hit batters, a wild pitch, and a catcher’s interference and another rain delay, it actually seemed longer.
Despite hitting two homers and scoring six runs, the Tigers never got closer than three runs after the White Sox pecked away at Flaherty for five runs in the fifth inning.
“Just couldn’t get the inning to end, and he couldn’t get a little bit of luck,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said of Flaherty’s rough fifth inning, which began with the Tigers leading, 1-0, and ended with the Tigers trailing, 5-1. “Going into that inning, they had one hit, one walk, and they come out of that inning with a five-spot.
“So, just a rough ending.”
The loss dropped the Tigers’ lead in the American League Central to 5.5 games over the Cleveland Guardians, who beat the Miami Marlins, 4-3, earlier Monday. Detroit has 41 regular-season games remaining.
The White Sox strung together four consecutive hits to start the fifth and had six hits, all singles, in the first seven betters to knock Flaherty from the game. He was at 52 pitches through four, then threw 34 more before he was done.
A two-run single by White Sox rookie slugger Colson Montgomery, who struck out the first two times up and was in an 0-2 hole in his at-bat in the fifth, proved to be the biggest and hardest blow, at more than 108 mph off the bat. It came on Flaherty’s fourth straight curveball. The White Sox made it 4-1 after an RBI single by Luis Robert Jr., a flare to left field at just 67 mph off the bat.
That was the story of the inning. Some balls were hit hard, most weren’t ― but Flaherty, who had two strikes on five of the batters who ended up getting hits, couldn’t finish them off. It left him sullen and visibly annoyed after the game.
“I mean, call it what you want,” said Flaherty, whose ERA is up to 4.76. “Made pitches. It’s what I did.
“Just frustrating.”
Flaherty had allowed just one hit through the first four innings, then saw Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero, Curtis Mead and Mike Tauchman single consecutively to start the fifth. Flaherty (6-12) struck out Lenyn Sosa and then quickly got ahead of Montgomery, before the roof completely caved in
It started with Montgomery.
“Their guy,” said Hinch, “beat our guy.”
BOX SCORE: White Sox 9, Tigers 6
Flaherty was relieved by Brant Hurter, who walked two of the first three White Sox batters he faced, including one with the bases loaded, to make it 5-1. (Using Hurter, who threw just 13 strikes to 17 balls, probably means Troy Melton will get the bulk innings Wednesday.) The Tigers’ three relievers combined to walk six batters.
The White Sox made it 6-1 on a bases-loaded walk by Andrew Benintendi in the sixth. That walk was by Codi Heuer, who threw wildly to second on a ball earlier in the inning. That could’ve been an inning-ending double play.
“Yeah, it kills us,” Hinch said of all the walks. “It’s too many. Obviously gave them a lot of opportunities to create some things, and they scored, I think, (four) innings in a row, with each of those innings having a walk.
“It can really hurt you.”
Yup. Story checks out.
The White Sox made it 7-3 in the seventh, when Quero, also off Heuer, hit his seventh homer of the season. Quero added a two-run single off Tommy Kahnle (two walks) to blow it wide open in the eighth inning. Kahnle has been scored upon in eight of his last 11 appearances.
For the second consecutive start, Flaherty allowed five earned runs in fewer than five innings. There were signs before the fifth that he didn’t have his best stuff. The first two batters of the game made a combined 780-plus feet of outs. Flaherty allowed eight hits, the first two in the fifth inning on plays that could’ve been made, the first just out of the reach of second baseman Gleyber Torres, the second out of the glove of sliding center fielder Wenceel Perez.
“Just try not to dwell on it,” Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler said. “I feel like there were some lucky hits all the way around, you know? And that’s the game of baseball. That’s baseball in a nut shell.”
Flaherty failed to get through five innings for the sixth time in 24 starts this season; he only failed to get through five once in 28 starts last season, and that was after he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“You just keep making pitches and try to trust the defense,” Flaherty said. “You just keep going.”
Flaherty’s counterpart, White Sox right-hander Yoendyrs Gomez (2-1), who’s been DFA’d by two teams already this season and was called up from Triple-A before the game, allowed just one hit in five innings, while striking out a career-high seven. He hit two batters and walked one in lowering his ERA to 5.56.
The Tigers did strike first in the game, which was delayed 50 minutes at the start because of a storm that blew through the South Side, in the fourth inning, when Kerry Carpenter was hit leading off, and Riley Greene followed with a double to deep center field (one of his two doubles on the night). Perez drove in Carpenter for the sacrifice fly to make it 1-0, and triggering some “Let’s Go Tigers” chants from the crowd of 19,494. Those chants didn’t last long.
Dingler cut the deficit to 6-3 when he homered to right-center in the seventh off Tyler Gilbert. Robert, the White Sox center fielder, leapt and got a glove on the ball but couldn’t corral it and nudged it over the fence for Dingler’s 11th homer. Andy Ibanez, pinch-hitting for Zach McKinstry (five strikeouts in his last two games), singled ahead of Dingler.
DET – Dillon Dingler 2-run HR (11)
📏 Distance: 388 ft
💨 EV: 103.9 mph
📐 LA: 31°
⚾️ 88.4 mph sinker (CWS – LHP Tyler Gilbert)
🏟️ Would be out in 10/30 MLB parks
DET (3) @ CWS (6)
🔺 7th#RepDetroit pic.twitter.com/HStEL82lo9
— MLB Home Runs🚀 (@MLBHRs_) August 13, 2025
Colt Keith hit his 10th homer of the season, a three-run shot to right-center in the ninth inning off Mike Vasil, to make it 9-6. Dingler led off that inning reaching on catcher’s interference. The White Sox had to go back to the bullpen for the final out; Jordan Leasure struck out Spencer Torkelson to collect his fourth save. Tigers hitters have struck out 24 times in the first two games of this series.
“We just have to flush this one like we’ve been with the losses,” said Dingler, “and look forward to the next one.”
The Tigers (69-52) are just 3-3 this season in Chicago against the White Sox (44-76), once again the worst team in the AL, after going 7-0 here a year ago.
The Tigers and White Sox wrap up the three-game series on Wednesday at 2:10 p.m.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
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