Thanks to wildness out of the zone, Chris Bassitt couldn't finish four innings in his last start.
Tonight, Bassitt had everything under control, and he came away with his first major-league victory on the team's sixth shutout of the season as a reward for his rebound.
Bassitt needed an inning to find his groove, stranding a double and a HBP to finish the first unscored upon. While he didn't record a 1-2-3 inning until the seventh, the Tigers couldn't string together baserunners against him. He threw strikes and didn't give the Tigers a lot to crush, and so he allowed just eight baserunners (six hits, a walk, HBP) over 7⅔ innings.
More impressively, he had to work around a couple of uncharacteristic Alexei Ramirez errors. However, he did get some help elsewhere around the diamond. Avisail Garcia made a nice sliding (not diving) catch down the right field line to take extra bases and a potential RBI away from Cabrera.
Later in the game, Martinez started the sixth with a double on a hanging changeup, but Marcus Semien made sure he couldn't advance with a nifty pick on a short-hop one batter later. Throw in a sliding Carlos Sanchez pick and a ranging play by Ramirez on a shift, and the shutout was a team effort even with the mistakes.
While Bassitt led the way, it was an equally great night for Tyler Flowers, who caught the shutout and provided the run support with a two-run homer in the second inning.
Flowers' blast came in the middle of the only real rough patch for Detroit rookie Kyle Lobstein. With two outs, Carlos Sanchez shot bounced a double over the wall in left center. On the next pitch, Flowers showed the difference in muscle by hitting a changeup the same direction, except over the fence for a two-run homer.
Moises Sierra followed with a double past third base, and that accounted for 60 percent of the White Sox's hits all evening. Lobstein held the Sox to two runs on five hits and a walk over seven innings, striking out five.
Bullet points:
*Bassitt struck out just three batters: Alex Avila, Alex Avila and Alex Avila.
*Flowers also made a couple of nice plays on defense, throwing out Ian Kinsler on a first-inning steal attempt, then thwarting Ezequiel Carrera's bunt single.
Robin Ventura with a SNL reference after Chris Bassitt's performance: "That's terrific bass."
— Dan Hayes (@CSNHayes) September 23, 2014
Record: 72-84 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights