Tigers 6, White Sox 3: Homers sink Jose Quintana

Thanks to the Monday rainout, the first game of the season gets a watched-from-work bullet-point recap.

*The Tigers scored all six of their runs off Jose Quintana, and all came via the long ball. Quintana couldn’t find the putaway pitch, especially early on, and it hurt him in the second inning. JaCoby Jones (three-run shot on the seventh pitch) and Nick Castellanos (two-run oppo shot on the sixth pitch) took him deep to turn a 1-0 lead into a 5-1 deficit. Ian Kinsler added a solo homer in the fourth for good measure.

*Considering Quintana trailed 5-1 with a pitch count of 52 through two, it was a minor victory that he got through 5¹⁄₃ with “just” 93 pitches.

*The White Sox lineup was a story of haves and have-nots against Justin Verlander and the Detroit bullpen. Four White Sox had two-hits, and the rest were held hitless.

*Tim Anderson had a rough start to his season, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in between Tyler Saladino (reached three times) and Melky Cabrera (two doubles).

*Cody Asche (HBP) and Avisail Garcia (single) started a potential rally in the ninth with those singles off Shane Greene, prompting Brad Ausmus to call for Francisco Rodriguez. Asche came around to score on two groundouts, but Saladino popped out to end the game.

*Jacob May went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, but he collected his first RBI with that ninth-inning groundout. He also made it through his debut without getting hurt, so this is a new season.

*Jake Petricka (one inning), Zack Putnam (1²⁄₃ innings) and Michael Ynoa (two-thirds of an inning) held Detroit scoreless in relief of Quintana. Ynoa’s outing involved a double, a pickoff (after a review) and a walk, making it eventful as always.

*This constitutes a competitive home opener for the White Sox, who lost them 6-0 and 7-1 in the previous two seasons.

Record: 0-1 | Box score | Highlights