Rinse and repeat. Keider Montero was brilliant on Sunday, but the Tigers’ offense did nothing after scoring a run in the first. An early hook and a brutal performance from Drew Anderson blew the game late, and the Tigers have now lost 21 of their last 25 games.
The kitties jumped out to a slim early lead in this one against right-hander Sean Burke. Colt Keith led off with a ground out, but Kevin McGonigle jumped on a Burke fastball and pulled a single through the right side of the infield and then scored when Spencer Torkelson doubled into the left field corner. Kerry Carpenter made his return to the Tigers’ lineup after two rehab games with the Toledo Mud Hens, but he struck out and Riley Greene flew out to center field. 1-0 Tigers but as usual, the big inning escaped them.
Still it was a lead, and Keider Montero took the mound locating his fastball really well. Sam Antonacci, Miguel Vargas, and Andrew Benintendi all quickly grounded out to end the first.
Burke struck out Matt Vierling to start the second. Wenceel Pérez grounded out and Zach McKinstry flew out to finish the frame. Montero continued to show off a particularly lively fourseam and sinker, popping up Colson Montgomery and then dusting Chase Meidroth with a perfect high sinker that he swung through awkwardly. Montero got ahead of Jacob Gonzalez as the rookie made his major league debut, and the rookie fought off a few breaking balls before lifting a drive out ball to Vierling in center.
Jake Rogers punched out to open the third. Keith grounded out to shortstop for the second out. McGonigle got a heavy dose of breaking balls and fought his way through another long at-bat and won with a walk. Burke shook his head twice in the at-bat as the Tigers rookie spat on or calmly fouled off his best stuff. McGonigle promptly stole his ninth base in nine attempts. Torkelson took a 97 mph heater right down the middle to squander the opportunity.
The fear for Montero in this one was his fly ball tendencies on a day, and in a park, where the ball tends to fly on warm summer days. He continued to defy these concerns in the bottom of the third. Triston Peters popped up a fastball and Drew Romo reached for a changeup and poopped up as well, both to Keith at third. Rikuu Nishida reached on an infield single, but Antonacci got jammed on a perfectly located heater and he popped out to Torkelson at first. Pretty good start from Montero despite the minimal whiffs.
Kerry Carpenter led off the fourth and he too got a little jammed by Burke, but flared a single into shallow right field. So the Tigers were set up with another opportunity, but Riley Greene chased a fastball away and struck out. That brought Vierling to the dish, and he popped out on a high fastball. This felt familiar, and Pérez quickly got behind 0-2, fought off a few pitches at the top of the zone, but ultimately took a fastball down and away on the corner for a called strike three as Dan Dickerson talked about Michael Brdar’s philosophy of moving baserunners and situational hitting. Implementation of said philosophy not included.
Montero carved up Vargas to start the fourth with a nasty slider down for a whiff. That bigger bending slider does draw some chase. A first pitch slider to Benintendi got a quick grounder to McKinstry at second, and Montero locked up the left-handed Montgomery with a perfect backdoor slider on the corner for strike three.
If this was all feeling familiar—the Tigers score an early run, do nothing while their starter pitches well, ultimately give up the lead, don’t get into the weak half of an opponent’s bullpen, and eventually lose—well we’re all thinking the same thing.
McKinstry and Rogers grounded out to open the fifth, and Colt Keith flicked a fly ball to Antonacci in left to send us to the bottom half.
Fortunately, Montero was conserving his energy, starting the inning at 44 pitches thrown. He quickly got Meidroth to ground out to McGonigle at shortstop. A 2-1 slider on the outer edge to Gonzalez was a strike but the umpire missed it and Rogers didn’t challenge. Montero came right back with a challnege pitch down the middle, and fortunately the rookie lifted a 3-1 fastball out to Pérez in right field for the second out. Montero fell behind against Peters, and he pulled a grounder past Torkelson for a double down the right field line. A changeup drew a chopper from Romo and Montero made a nice leaping play to snare it and fire to first to end the inning on his 56th pitch of the outing.
Burke himself was at 80 pitches to open the sixth against Kevin McGonigle. In a 3-2, Burke tried a front door sinker for a called strike three, but a smart challenge after a bit of a delay got the call corrected and McGonigle was on for the third time, here with a leadoff walk. Torkelson immediately got down 0-2, but McGonigle was dancing off first to distract Burke and while he didn’t run, Burke missed twice to even the count. It was good that he didn’t run, as Torkelson eventually lined out to Vargas at third.
The broadcast was discussing the Tigers penchant for taking an early lead and neither building on it nor holding it, noting that the Tigers are just 17-17 in games in which they have the lead. Leaguewide the win percentage is closer to 70 percent in those scenarios.
That was the end for Burke, and lefty Chris Murphy took over. That prompted Hinch to hit Jahmai Jones for Kerry Carpenter. Last year that meant the Tigers had the advantage. This year, managers can put in a lefty and get one of the Tigers bats out of the lineup in favor of Jones, who is doing nothing. This time, Jones avoided ruining the plan with a long at-bat that resulted in a walk. Instead it was Riley Greene who ripped a hot ground ball right to Meidroth to start an inning ending double play.
To the eye, Montero’s slider looked improved throughout this one, with more depth and less sweep. A check of the Statcast data showed no additional depth, but half as much horizontal sweep, and the adjustment, assuming it lasts, certainly looks like an improvement.
The Tigers’ right-hander came back out with his pitch count still in outstanding shape, and he didn’t nothing to change that. Nishida struck out on a knuckle curve to start the frame. Another slider popped up Antonacci, and Vargas grounded out sharply to Keith at third. The efficiency continued despite it being the third time through the White Sox’s order. Montero was still only at 65 pitches through six.
Murphy walked Vierling to open the seventh inning. Once again the leadoff man was on. Could the Tigers capitalize? Pérez did not, driving a fly ball to left while hitting right-handed. Murphy then picked off Vierling, who was looking to run. Spectacular. Ah well, it doesn’t matter unless someone hits outside of the top 3-4 hitters in the lineup.
McKinstry fought off a few pitches and drew a two-out walk, and Will Venable emerged from the shadows of the White Sox’s dugout to make a pitching change to another lefty, Brandon Eisert, as Jake Rogers stepped in. This move was made easy by the fact that Keith and McGonigle were due up after Rogers did whatever it is Rogers does at the plate. Dillon Dingler was getting a much needed full day off, and so the backup dug in, and eventually struck out.
Despite the minimal pitch count, Montero’s day was done as AJ Hinch went to Drew Anderson in the bottom of the seventh. Bad idea. Trying to get three scoreless innings from this bullpen when you don’t need them is madness. I wrote this, Benintendi grounded out, and then Colson Montgomery went yard to right field on a hanging changeup. 1-1 game. The third time through the order penalty is real, but so is the “Scott Harris couldn’t build a bullpen if his life depended on it,” penalty.
Chase Meidroth followed with a single to left, and Gonzalez got another floating changeup away and paddled through the left side of the infield for a single. Peters got down 0-2 and he flicked a curveball about three inches foul down the left field line. Eventually, another kick changeup that stayed up and away was paddled through the left side of the infield for an RBI single. 2-1 White Sox, and still only one out in the inning. The changeup just did not have its usual good depth and the White Sox were just serving it out there at will. Romo hit a deep drive to center field for the second out, but it was deep enough for Gonzalez to tag and take third.
That was it for Anderson, as Hinch brought in Tyler Holton to face Nishida. That got Venable to pinch hit Randal Grichuk, but he didn’t get to hit as Holton picked off Peters and McKinstry ran him down to end the inning.
Venable continued to dip into his pool of left-handers, pulling Eisert and going to lefty Bryan Hudson instead to start the eighth. Hinch then pinch-hit Hao-Yu Lee in for Colt Keith. He took a called strike three and McGonigle popped out. Torkelson grounded a single through the right side of the infield with two outs, but a drive from Jones was run down by Antonacci where the warning track and foul territory converge in the left field corner.
Brenan Hanifee took over in the bottom of the eighth, and quickly racked up three outs on contact.
Venable stuck with Hudson to face Riley Greene in the top of the ninth. He popped out on a nice play from Vargas running from third base into foul territory, tumbling over the tarp. His work done, Hudson was pulled for right-hander Tyler Davis to pick up the last two outs. He had no trouble doing so. Vierling lined out to left, and Pérez popped out.
Another fine outing from Keider Montero was wasted. 6.0 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 4 K. The early hook blew up Hinch’s face immediately, and once again the Tigers couldn’t add on runs and barely even threatened to do so.
The Tigers are 22-38, and officially the worst team in baseball. We’ll see if the Rockies can re-tie them for that dubious honor later on today.
