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White Sox 3, Tigers 0: Good first impressions

Tyler Danish earns the win in his first start by pitching five scoreless innings, and Adam Engel scores his first run.

Detroit Tigers v Chicago White Sox Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Tyler Danish wasn't the popular pick to fill in as the 26th man and make a spot start, but he held his own while keeping the Detroit Tigers scoreless. In five innings of work, Danish threw 104 pitches allowing three hits, six walks, and six strikeouts in the White Sox 3-0 victory.

In the first inning, Danish allowed an Andrew Romaine single and walked Alex Avila to put the first two baserunners on for Miguel Cabrera. Fast way to start living dangerously, Danish was able to induce a 6-4-3 double play to get his first two outs as a starter. However, Detroit kept the pressure on as Danish walked both Victor Martinez and Justin Upton. Bases loaded, Nick Castellanos on a 3-1 pitch hit a grounder up the middle that Yolmer Sanchez ranged to his right and made a dart of a throw to first ending the inning. Even though he allowed one hit and three walks, Danish kept the game scoreless.

The next frame, Danish allowed a double to Jose Iglesias and his fourth walk to Romaine, but he struck out the side ending that threat. The third inning was his first 1-2-3 inning getting Cabrera to fly out and striking out Martinez and Upton. Detroit had another scoring opportunity in the fourth with runners on first and second, but Danish was able to escape striking out Iglesias and Romaine flew out to center.

For his final inning, after walking Martinez and his pitch count reaching 100, manager Rick Renteria walked out to the mound to speak with Danish. It would have made sense if Renteria wanted to pull Danish as Chris Beck was warmed up in the bullpen, but instead, let Danish face one more hitter. That gamble paid off as Upton's flair heading to right field was snagged by Yolmer Sanchez who timed his jump just right.

Run support was difficult for the White Sox to produce because Tigers starter Michael Fulmer was on his game. The game was scoreless heading to the bottom half of the fifth inning, but Tim Anderson had an infield single, and Matt Davidson followed that up with a single of his own to put runners on first and third with no outs. Catcher Omar Narvaez decided to try a safety squeeze with the speedy Anderson 90 feet away, but it wasn't the best attempt as Miguel Cabrera fielded the bunt cleanly. . . and then did nothing. Caught watching what Anderson would do at third allowed both Davidson and Narvaez to reach safely.

Bases loaded, Fulmer got Yolmer Sanchez to ground up the middle as Detroit had the infield back. That worked to their favor as Iglesias turned a 6-3 double play, but Anderson did score giving Chicago a 1-0 lead.

Amazingly, that's all the run support the bullpen needed as Chris Back, Anthony Swarzak, Tommy Kahnle, and David Robertson only allowed one hit in the remaining four innings while striking out nine.

In the eighth, Adam Engel made his first professional appearance pinch running for Narvaez after his single. Engel was able to showcase his plus speed as Leury Garcia drove a Fulmer fastball down the right field line. It only took 10.13 seconds for Engel to score 270 feet away and Leury slid into third safely for a RBI triple. He would score on Jose Abreu's broken-bat single, and the Sox gave D-Rob a 3-0 lead to close it out.

After the win, the White Sox are now 22-25 and a half game ahead of Detroit in the AL Central standings for third place.

Record: 22-25 | Box Score | Play-by-Play | Video