Tigers 7, White Sox 5: Too little, too late

The Chicago White Sox lost another winnable to game to the Detroit Tigers. Once again, this team left the offense for the end of the game, and it became too little, too late.

This team becomes tougher and tougher to watch, at a time when they are supposed to have all the attention and all the skill and all the fun.

Lucas Giolito was HOT to begin the game. He sat down the Tigers, 1-2-3, with three strikeouts. He would continue to throw up goose eggs for the next four innings.

In the meantime, Tim Anderson began the game with a single up the middle, and Luis Robert later crushed a first-pitch fastball for a colossal home run and a 2-0 Sox lead early in the first inning.

After that for the Sox offense? Nothing ...

However, for the Tigers offense, Jeimer Candelario happened. Spencer Torkelson walked to open the sixth inning, and Candelario took Giolito’s second-pitch changeup deep to right field to tie the game, 2-2.

Giolito cruised through the rest of the inning, and he started the seventh with two quick outs, but trouble ensued. Candelario singled home Jonathan Schoop, who had singled with two outs. Joe Kelly was called in to relieve Lucas, and he continued to stink. Willi Castro singled home Spencer Torkelson, who walked after Schoop’s single.

Kelly allowed a stolen base to Castro and a walk to Riley Greene. Javier Báez burned the Sox for the second time in two days with a two-RBI double, bumping the Tigers lead to 6-2 in the seventh inning.

If it couldn’t get any worse, with two outs in the eighth, Luis Robert missed a catch on a not-so-routine fly ball, which allowed another run to score for a 7-2 game in favor of Detroit.

... until the eight inning.

The Sox decided to chip away. AJ Pollock and José Abreu singled, and with two outs and two strikes, Eloy Jiménez tallied an RBI single to trim the deficit to 7-3. With a new reliever coming into the game, Tony La Russa brought in Gavin Sheets to square off lefty Tyler Alexander. Sheets, to his credit, tallied an RBI infield single off of Torkelson’s glove, and Seby Zavala notched his very own RBI single.

With a 7-5 score, La Russa did the impossible. He called back Leury from the on-deck circle, and sent up Andrew Vaughn as the pinch hitter. Vaughn would strike out to end the inning, but that was the right move.

Michael Fulmer came on for the save. With one out, he hit Anderson, and Pollock doubled. Luis Robert, who has the highest chase rate in MLB, struck out, all on sliders. Abreu, with a chance to walk it off, almost took the ball over the right-field fence for a game-winning blast, but it fell just short — into Castro’s glove for the 27th out.

The White Sox lost 7-5, and their overall record dropped to 39-43.

Tomorrow’s 1:10 p.m. CT game with feature Johnny Cueto (2-4, 3.30 ERA, 4.51 xERA) and rookie Garrett Hill (1-0, 1.50 ERA, 3.84 xERA in one major-league career start).