CHICAGO - The Tigers had the kind of moment that can flip a game and maybe even a season, and it vanished in an instant.
Down 2-1 in the sixth inning Saturday at Rate Field, Detroit loaded the bases after Riley Greene singled and Max Clark and Ben Malgeri walked. Sean Burke stayed in to face rookie Brett Callahan, and when Burke bounced a pitch near the dirt, Callahan swung and missed as the ball got away. Greene broke for home and crossed with what looked like the tying run.
Then came the review.
The ball had hit Callahan’s foot after the swing, which made the play dead. Greene had to return to third, the run came off the board, and Callahan struck out on a knuckle-curve right after that.
The Tigers never recovered. Miguel Vargas led off the bottom of the inning by crushing the first pitch he saw from Jackson Jobe for a homer, and the White Sox pulled away for a 3-1 win.
That loss left Detroit at 73-82 and on the brink of elimination. The Tigers’ “tragic number” dropped to one in both the American League Central race, behind the Cleveland Guardians, and the wild-card chase, behind the White Sox. It also kept alive an ugly road trend: Detroit is 0-14 in games decided by two runs or fewer against AL Central teams away from home.
Jobe was the reason the Tigers had a shot at all. He was sharp after a shaky first inning and wound up with a career-high nine strikeouts.
Sam Antonacci opened the game with a grounder up the middle that looked headed for a hit, but Hao-Yu Lee made a diving stop and threw him out. After Jobe struck out Teel, he walked Vargas on five pitches, Vargas stole second for his 20th of the season, and then scored on a soft single by Munetaka Murakami.
That run made Vargas the first player in White Sox history with 30 doubles, 30 homers, 100 runs and 20 steals.
After that, Jobe settled in and looked in control. He rolled through four innings, needed just 65 pitches to get that far, generated 12 swings and misses, and had seven strikeouts with only the one walk. The trouble arrived in the fifth, when Braden Montgomery doubled off the wall, Brenton Doyle singled to left and Antonacci followed with a sacrifice fly that put Chicago ahead 2-1.
Detroit had already gotten back even in the fifth against Burke. Ben Malgeri was hit by a pitch, Callahan singled to center and John Peck worked a seven-pitch walk to load the bases. Kevin McGonigle then lifted a sacrifice fly to left to make it 1-1.
The Tigers had another chance in the eighth. Greene was hit by a pitch and Clark dropped a bloop single into shallow right, but Grant Taylor came in for Chicago and got Eduardo Valencia to ground out to end the threat.
Defensively, Detroit was cleaner this time. A.J. Hinch stuck with Peck at shortstop after the rookie’s rough stretch earlier in the week, and before the game Hinch made clear he wasn’t wavering.
“Don't get picked off,” Hinch said before the game. “We talked to him last night about all that he's learning, and I think he's handled everything very, very well.
He's been an incredible defender. I know he had the one inning - one inning in one month here where he's remotely even struggled.”
Hinch added that he plans to keep running Peck out there because of the confidence he has in him.
“I want the ball hit to him, and I keep saying that's the best compliment I’ve given because I think he can convert those ground balls to outs as good as anybody we have.”
Detroit had made too many mistakes in recent days: three errors in Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to Toronto, two by Peck and one by McGonigle; another error by McGonigle in Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the White Sox; and two more errors in Friday’s 11-8 win, by Gleyber Torres and Leee. The lone blemish Saturday was a Colt Keith error that did not end up hurting the Tigers.
The season now heads to Detroit’s final road game on Sunday at 2:10 p.m. Right-hander Troy Melton, 8-4 with a 2.52 ERA, will start for the Tigers, and right-hander Davis Martin, 9-7 with a 3.96 ERA, will go for the White Sox.
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