After two losses at the hands (and bats) of the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers attempted to salvage a win in the finale of their three-game weekend series at Comerica Park. They didn’t, as the White Sox again came from behind for the victory, this time by a 7-5 score.
Drew Anderson made his third start as a for-real member of the Tigers’ rotation. His first outing went 3 2/3 innings and lasted 42 pitches; his second went only four innings but required 70 pitches. So, the goal would be roughly five or so innings, more if he was rolling, and perhaps 80-ish pitches. But, as we know, not all pitches are created equally: pitches made with runners on base in stressful situations tax the body more than, say, an 0-0 count with two out and nobody on base to Jimmy McScrub, batting ninth and holding a roll of wrapping paper as a bat.
Opposing Anderson and the Tigers was Sean Burke — no, not the former longtime NHL goaltender, silly — who is in his second full season with the White Sox. He made his twenty-first start for Chicago today, and he has been very, very solid so far: strikes out about 10 per nine innings and generally keeps home runs down. He’s more of a fly-ball pitcher, but since his hard-hit percentage is lower than average (by quite a few percent against league average), he’ll usually keep the ball in the yard. XXXXXXX
Things got cooking for the Tigers in the bottom of the second: Colt Keith led off with a single and Zach McKinstry walked. After Spencer Torkelson popped out, Brett Callahan stepped to the plate for the first time in the major leagues. The first pitch was a knuckle-curve down in the zone; Callahan swung and hit a triple into the right-field corner for a 2-0 Tigers lead.
View LinkThat wasn’t the world’s prettiest head-first slide into third, but I’ll take it (and I presume Callahan will too). Fellow rookie Max Clark followed with a single to right, scoring Callahan for a 3-0 lead. Javier Báez hit a grounder that the White Sox thought was an inning-ending double play but on review was only a forceout at second; Gleyber Torres then hit a single to right, and Kevin McGonigle walked to load the bases with two out. Alas, Dillon Dingler then sent a fly ball to left field that settled in the glove of a sliding Sam Antonacci for the third out.
The White Sox got a run back in the top of the third: Tristan Peters hit an automatic double, advanced to third on a grounder to first — but was actually the ol’ 3-4-1 putout as the ball ticked off Torkelson’s glove, right to an alert Torres — and came home on another grounder to first.
Speaking of things ticking off fielders’ gloves, Keith hit a fly ball on the first pitch of the bottom of the third to left that Antonacci jumped for, but couldn’t quite get his entire glove on, as it went over the fence.
View LinkIt goes in the books the same as an Aaron Judge-ian blast, though! When the ball settled and Antonacci picked himself up off the warning track it was a 4-1 game, and the Tigers were looking pretty good at this point.
In the fourth the White Sox had runners on second and first with one out, but Colson Montgomery struck out swinging and Chase Meidroth hit a slow bouncer to shortstop; Báez scooped it up and fired it to first base in time for the third out.
The fifth inning saw Anderson walk the leadoff batter, the eighth batter of the lineup, and the ninth-place hitter, catcher Drew Romo, hit his seventh home run of the year to narrow the gap to 4-3. But after that Anderson got a groundout and a pair of strikeouts; at five innings and 74 pitches, that was going to be the end of his day. His final line: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 5 K. It would’ve looked a heck of a lot nicer if not for that one mistake to Romo, but against a hot-hitting team like Chicago, that’s not too bad.
After a one-out walk in the fifth, Burke’s day was done and lefty Hagen Smith relieved him. Smith got the next two outs and that was that.
The White Sox evened the score in the top of the sixth, as Tyler Holton took over for Anderson: Randal Grichuk doubled to lead off the inning, took third on a flyout, and scored on a Colson Montgomery single to centre through a drawn-in infield. Meidroth then walked, and you had to wonder if things were going to completely come off the rails, but fortunately Holton settled down and got a strikeout-looking and a foulout to first.
Chicago kept the runs coming in the seventh: Antonacci walked to lead off — sound familiar? — and Munetaka Murakami hit a two-run home run to put the White Sox ahead 6-4. That was it for Holton, who’s been sensational lately but just didn’t have it today. Tanner Rainey replaced Holton, and it initially looked equally dicey: a pair of walks sandwiched around a flyout put two runners on. Rainey struck out the next man, but during the next batter a wild pitch moved both runners up; thankfully Rainey got Meidroth out on strikes and the damage had been limited.
Huascar Brazobán, who was seen in Friday night’s game, took over in the bottom of the seventh. Torres greeted him with a leadoff double, and with one out Dingler hit a double to left to score Torres and narrow the lead to 6-5.
View LinkCould this be Dingler’s slump-busting hit? I sure hope so! Brazobán left after a groundout in favour of Friday’s opener Sean Newcomb, who got pinch-hitter Hao-Yu Lee to ground out sharply to first and strand Dingler.
Jacob Waugespack relieved Rainey to start the eighth, and things were as boring as you’d want them: a flyout and a pair of groundouts.
In the bottom of the eighth Ben Malgeri, who had two home runs in Friday night’s game, walked with one out. Clark hit a grounder, and he hustled down the line to (upon review) get out of the double play, but Báez grounded out to third to end the inning and strand the speedy Clark.
In the ninth the dangerous Miguel Vargas, who had quite a series, added to Chicago’s lead by bashing a solo home run to put the White Sox up 7-5.
So, it was up to the Tigers to get out of a two-run hole in the ninth to avoid the sweep, with Newcomb carrying on into the bottom of the ninth. Instead, they meekly exited the game and the series with hardly a peep, falling 5 1/2 games behind Chicago in the American League Central. Shoot, did we go back in time to the month of May or something?!
Final score: White Sox 7, Tigers 5
If it wasn’t for bad luck……the Tigers wouldn’t have no luck at all.
With a runner on 2nd base to start the run, od the Tigers last 8 hitters, 7 have registered as hard hit balls, which is 95mph plus, ending with Lee's 103.5, and a xba of .490. They scored once. Baseball is cruel sometimes.
— John Verburg (@MCB_johnverburg) August 16, 2026Numbers and Commemorations- As has been described elsewhere, Trei Cruz has been Designated For Assignment and Brett Callahan was promoted to the Tigers. Cruz had a two-game cup of coffee in Detroit this year, and despite having a really nice 2025 in Toledo, he just wasn’t cutting it and perhaps needed a change of scenery. All the best to you, Mr. Cruz.
- Dillon Dingler is scuffling, as you probably know. Coming into today’s game he was 1-for-34 dating back to the first game in San Francisco. Here’s hoping that double today breaks him out of his funk.
- Holy mackerel, did you see that debut from the Cardinals’ Joshua Báez?! Three home runs in his first three at-bats. That’s totally bananas. As far as I know he’s not related to our Báez, but I gotta say, Joshua’s swing looks somewhat like Javy’s.
- On this day in 1920, Carl Mays threw a pitch that hit Ray Chapman in the head, and he would pass away the following day. It remains the only instance in Major League Baseball that a player has died from injuries sustained in a game. Honestly, with the occasional pitcher getting hit in the head by a screaming line drive, I’m surprised that has been the only such occurrence.
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