White Sox 7, Tigers 3: Tigers defense opens the door, Sox bullpen slams it shut

Nick Castellanos booted two balls in the eighth inning to set up Geovany Soto to be the hero. With the score tied at three in the top of the eighth, Melky Cabrera singled to left. Todd Frazier and Avisail Garcia followed with grounders to third, but when the smoke cleared the bases were loaded and nobody was out as Castellanos committed two errors. Matt Davidson did his best to get the Tigers off the hook when he hit a chopper to shortstop Jose Iglesias who started the 6-2-3 double play. The Tigers chose to intentionally walk Yolmer Sanchez to get to Soto. Geo promptly smoked a single to left field to score Frazier and Avi, which gave the Sox a 5-3 lead.

Tim Anderson made that a 7-3 lead in the top of the ninth when he annihilated a Joe Jimenez offering deep into the left field seats. Anderson added a little flavor with a Rickey-esque trot out of the box.

Not to be outdone were the White Sox bullpen. Mike Pelfrey left the game after 4 ²⁄₃ innings with two on and the score tied at three. Dan Jennings got Alex Avila to softly line to third to end the inning.

After giving up a single to Jim Aducci to start the sixth, Rick Renteria called on Anthony Swarzak, who got six outs in a row. After the Sox took the lead, Renteria called on Nate Jones who went three up three down. In the ninth it was the Tommy Gun, Tommy Kahnle, who set down the Tigers in order with the help of a nice sliding catch in foul territory by Avi Garcia to close out the game.

All in all the Sox pen faced 13 men and sat down 12 of them in another dominant outing.

Bullet points as I missed the first couple of innings due to coaching little league:

• The Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a Justin Upton single off of Pelfrey in the first.
• The Sox answered quickly as Todd Frazier and Avisail Garcia went back to back to open the second. It was Frazier’s second and Garcia’s fifth of the year.
• The Sox took the lead in the third. Tim Anderson led off with a double, moved to third on a Cabrera single, and scored on a Garcia infield hit. The Sox had the bases loaded with one out, but Yolmer bounced into a 1-2 force and Soto popped out to first.
• Garcia was 3-5 with 2 runs, 2 RBI and the homer. He is now hitting .388.
• Pelfrey went 4 ²⁄₃ and kept the Sox in the game. He owns a 5.00 ERA.
• The Sox have now won five in a row and are 12-9 on the campaign.
• The Sox are now in first place in the AL Central.
• Swarzak (2-0) picked up the win.

Record: 12-9 | Box| Highlights