Tigers 7, White Sox 4: A forgettable first start

Bullet-point recap for now, since this game occurred during the workday and I want to watch Frankie Montas' starting debut in its entirety...

*Montas' first start didn't go as planned. He gave up a two-run homer to Victor Martinez (his 200th) to fall behind 2-0 after one, then allowed five straight Tigers to reach in the third, leading to four more runs. Robin Ventura called for an intentional walk of Victor Martinez the next time they met, but that only set up a bases-loaded ground-rule double for J.D. Martinez. A Nick Castellanos line drive went off MIke Olt's glove for another run, and an Alex Avila groundout made it a 6-0 game.

*The White Sox offense took its time getting to Justin Verlander, but Melky Cabrera finally came through with a two-run milestone homer of his own (his 100th) to put the Sox on the board in the top of the fourth.  However, back-to-back two-out hits off Scott Carroll in the bottom of the fourth made that inning only half as effective.

*Verlander found a way to revert to his old form when threatened. The Sox mounted a rally in the seventh with three consecutive one-out hits, including an RBI double by Alexei Ramirez that put runners on second and third. That's when Verlander started dialing it up to the high-90s. He struck out Carlos Sanchez, and after walking Gordon Beckham for some reason (he was ahead 0-2 and then tried to paint a strikeout), he came back to blow away Geovany Soto with 99 mph heat to end the threat.

*Cabrera picked up an extra run with another hit in the eighth, capping off a nice afternoon with an RBI double. He went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a diving catch in left.

*Neftall Feliz came back from blowing the save on Tuesday with a 1-2-3 ninth.

*Daniel Webb and Zach Putnam each threw scoreless innings they sorely needed, as did Dan Jennings in the eighth.

Record: 72-80 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights