Tigers 4, White Sox 3: The Cardiac Cats are Back, baby!

The offence was very, very quiet for eight innings, but a comeback win reminiscent of 2024 was just the ticket.

A sunny Sunday saw the Detroit Tigers going for the sweep of the hapless Chicago White Sox .

I use the term “hapless” with a modicum of understanding here, people. I’ve been a fan of the Tigers for many decades, including when my favourite team was definitely described with that adjective. I didn’t like it, but it was true, and sometimes the truth hurts. The White Sox set a record for futility last year, and they ain’t lookin’ too good this year either. So there.

With a trio of runs in the bottom of the ninth, helped along by a boatload of walks, the Tigers did just that, winning 4-3 for the series sweep.

Making his second major-league start for the Tigers — or anyone else, for that matter — was Jackson Jobe. The first-rounder out of an Oklahoma high school was a little up-and-down in his first start , in Seattle on March 31: he went four innings, gave up a pair of home runs and walked four, but since his own team’s hitters scored a half-dozen runs in the top of the first inning, the long gap between pregame warmups and the bottom of the first may have contributed to the sluggish start. Who knows?

Taking the hill for the visitors was Martín Pérez, who spent a long time with Texas and Boston. His first outing of the season was sensational, throwing six no-hit innings against the Twins, walking three and striking out nine, and picking up the victory. The Venezuelan lefty turned 34 on Friday, an age which seems old when you’re young and young when you’re old. Pérez has typically succeeded when he keeps home runs down: in 2022 he had a great season and gave up 0.5 HR/9 innings, but he usually gives up two to three times that number in an average season.

The visitors got on the board in the first inning with a pair of singles sandwiched around a walk, along with a sacrifice fly, to put the home team in a 2-0 hole before coming to bat. Jobe settled down in the second, though, and notched a pair of swinging strikeouts: getting a lefty on a down-and-in cutter, and a right on an inside four-seamer.

In the bottom of the second the Tigers got a run back: Manuel Margot led off with a single to left, and he took second on a long foul flyout to right by Kerry Carpenter. With two outs Margot was off with the crack of the bat, and Javier Báez’s little flair to shallow centre bought him enough time to come around third and score, making it 2-1.

In the fourth the White Socks manufactured a run the old-fashioned way: an infield single, a walk, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly made it 3-1.

Báez hit a sharp ground ball down the right-field line to lead off the fifth; he might not’ve gotten a triple out of it, but an idiotic fan reached over and touched it, so he was limited to a double. He advanced to third on a deep fly ball from Ryan Kreidler, and after a groundout that didn’t allow him to score, Justyn-Henry Malloy walked to put runners on the corners with two outs. Unfortunately, Andy Ibáñez hit a routine fly ball to end the proceedings, and the score stayed frozen where it was before.

Jobe’s day was done after five innings, and his final line was alright but not spectacular: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB (ouch), 4 K. His day improved as it went on, but hopefully he gets over those early-inning jitters soon. Brenan Hanifee took over and had a typical Brenan Hanifee inning: three batters, three groundouts. He carried on into the seventh and threw a lineout in there just for variety’s sake, but it was 6-up, 6-down.

Mike Clevinger took over for Pérez with one out in the bottom of the seventh, and back-to-back walks put a pair of runners on with two outs for Riley Greene, pinch-hitting on his day off. Chicago took the opportunity to bring in a lefty, Cam Booser, to face Greene. Well, the first pitch nearly took Greene’s head off, but a slider away eventually polished-off Greene and ended the threat.

Tommy Kahnle and the Neverending Changeups took over for Hanifee in the eighth, and Báez moved to… um… centerfield. (Remember, he did a little of that in Spring Training.) The half-inning ended without incident, though.

The Tigers got runners on first and second in the eighth with one out, but Dillon Dingler fouled-out to right for the second out. That left things up to Carpenter; Sox manager Will Venable brought in another lefty, just like with Greene earlier, and unfortunately (for us) the move worked, with Carpenter grounding out softly on the first pitch for the third out.

John Brebbia came in for the ninth inning, and despite plunking Miguel Vargas on a chilly day, which has gotta hurt like the dickens, he got the other three outs fairly uneventfully.

Leading off the bottom of the ninth, down two runs, Báez — gee, he’s been busy today — singled to left. On the next pitch Trey Sweeney hit a grounder that forced Báez out at second, but Zack McKinstry battled for a ten-pitch walk to put two runners on, bringing up Greene, who walked on four very wild pitches to load the bases.

Since it was Ibáñez the Lefty Killer up next, the Sox brought in a righty to face him, and an eight-pitch bases-loaded walk skooched the score up to 3-2. That brought Spencer Torkelson up, again with the bases loaded, who crushed a double to left to score McKinstry and Greene for the 4-3 win.

I SEE YOU, GRITTY TIGS.

On Monday the New York Yankees and their stupid-looking bats come to town. Note the change in game times: because it’s going to be chilly, Monday’s game is at 3:10 pm, and Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s games are at 1:10 pm (all times EDT).

Javier Báez, Master Tagger

He let the ball travel just a little bit further so he can immediately tag Luis Robert Jr. out at second on a stolen base attempt.

Say what you will — and you probably have — about Báez at the plate, but he might be one of the best ever at this particular skill. The hand-eye coordination and split-second decision-making this took is just off the charts.

Observations and Commemorations

• Spencer Torkelson has had a blazing-hot start to the season: coming into today he’s had 36 plate appearances, 28 at-bats, and 10 hits including three doubles and two dingers. That’s a .345 average, 1.127 OPS, and a scorching 215 OPS+ (100 is league average).
• What you perhaps don’t want to hear is that his BABip (batting average on balls in play) is an incredibly-unsustainable .533, which means, yep, Tork’s had a horseshoe lodged somewhere on his body. So, sorry to say, it’s not sustainable — but perhaps this great stretch has unlocked something in him that we’ve hoped was there all along. The takes, the bad ball hitting, and using the whole field all say he’s unlocked at least a little something.
• Apparently Torkelson was 2-for-24 coming into today with the bases loaded. Well, now he’s 3-for-25.
• Why can’t MLB just call them the Sacramento A’s? It’s almost like they’re embarrassed to be in this ridiculous situation or something, which they definitely did nothing about.
• On this day in 1453, Ottoman sultan Mehmed II began his siege of Constantinople, which at that time was the capital of the Byzantine Empire. When it fell in late May, the city was renamed Istanbul, and five hundred years later, a song (later covered by They Might Be Giants ) was written to commemorate that event. If you click that link, that song will be stuck in your head for a good long while. You’re welcome.