Tigers 11, White Sox 5: The dog days are here

Now that the White Sox are shifting into post-deadline mode, there are some games that just aren’t worthy of a full recap. This one's a good example, as the Sox tied their low-water mark at four games under .500 while looking outclassed in Detroit. You can boil this game down to a handful of takeaways.

No. 1: Charlie Tilson fell to the White Sox debut curse.

Tilson, making his MLB debut with the team he grew up rooting for, singled in his first at-bat. The good vibes lasted less than an hour, because he left the game with a leg injury chasing down Miguel Cabrera’s line drive to the gap. The White Sox called it a hamstring injury for the time being, but it’s probably worse than that. He had to be carried off the field -- from deep center -- with very little weight on his left leg.

Tilson joins Kevan Smith (back), Jason Coats (face) and Matt Davidson (foot) as players who did not survive their first games with the White Sox this season.

No. 2: James Shields looked like somebody they should’ve traded.

Shields finished July with a 1.78 over five starts, all of the quality variety. He had a 1.71 ERA if you go one more start back.

Over that same stretch, though, he only struck out 21 batters over 42 innings. That measly K rate dropped further as Shields, facing Detroit for the third time in two months, hit a wall in the fifth after starting with four scoreless innings. Austin Romine led off with the first of two triples in the inning, and it could’ve been three if it were anybody but Cabrera who hit the ball that Tilson injured himself trying to catch.

Not all of the seven hits Shields allowed in the fifth inning were well-struck, but four of them came with two strikes. Shields recorded just one strikeout over his five innings. This is the kind of start that could be hard for Shields to avoid on a consistent-enough basis.

No. 3: Avisail Garcia straight-up clobbered two inner-half pitches for homers to left field.

Replacing Tilson -- and perhaps drinking the blood of the younger — Garcia tried to provide comfort by homering in both his at-bats. He first turned around an inside-corner Shane Greene cutter in the seventh inning, which was majestic enough.

Two innings later, Mark Lowe grooved a 91-mph fastball, and Garcia unloaded on it for a 466-foot homer, 116 mph off the bat. It’s the longest homer by a White Sox in the Statcast era, and I keep watching it. Todd Frazier hit his 30th homer, but it didn't compare.

No. 4: Tyler Saladino has a bit of Micah Johnson in him.

Last week, Saladino nearly collided with Micah Johnson and Jose Abreu on pop-ups. This time, he nearly got sandwiched between the right fielder and first baseman on one play.

That's a yellow card on Saladino, right? pic.twitter.com/BDtmSKkjlO

— Phenomenal Source (@SouthSideSox) August 3, 2016

Record: 51-55 | Box score | Highlights