Tigers 3, White Sox 2: More of the same

Yet another embarrassing home loss for the Chicago White Sox comes this afternoon, as the Detroit Tigers secure a sweep with a 3-2 win. Now 31 games worse than .500, the White Sox sit at 53-84. Will they get to 60 wins, or avoid 100 losses? Who knows at this point.

This one actually looked promising early on, as the South Siders attacked early against Tarik Skubal, in the bottom of the first inning.

This started with one of the more positive milestones of the year, as Tim Anderson recorded his 1,000th career hit on the first pitch from Skubal — a pitch that almost went out of the park. Instead, it was a double.

With two outs, Eloy Jiménez singled to center to drive in Anderson. After a walk to Yoán Moncada, Elvis Andrus singled to drive in Jiménez to give the team a 2-0 lead early.

Michael Kopech started off the top of the second inning with, what else, back-to-back walks. With two outs, Carson Kelly had a double to score both Matt Vierling and Parker Meadows, on base from those walks, to tie the game, 2-2. Already with a pitch count in the 40s, Kopech was yanked and replaced by Tanner Banks. It is unclear if he was pulled due to injury or just being bad, but it would seem likely he was removed because he walked five batters in 1 2⁄3 innings.

Banks pitched into the fifth, and was replaced by Jimmy Lambert. Almost immediately, Lambert was removed due to right ankle soreness.

That brought Bryan Shaw once more to the mound, and nothing much happened the next few innings. Trayce Thompson had a great catch in the top of the sixth with two on for the Tigers, saving a run or two and ending the inning with the game still tied.

Aaron Bummer blew another outing in the top of the seventh, as Spencer Torkelson hit a solo home run for the 3-2 lead. Skubal recovered well enough to last seven innings with five hits, two runs, and seven strikeouts. The Tigers bullpen took over from there.

However, in the bottom of the ninth the White Sox had a chance to tie or walk it off, but of course it ended in typical White Sox fashion. Moncada started the inning off with a single and pinch-hitter Gavin Sheets almost grounded into a double play, but beat the throw and was safe at first. The Tigers challenged, but the call was upheld.

Yasmani Grandal pinch-hit for Thompson and walked to put runners on first and second, but Oscar Colás hit into a double play to end the game.

I don’t know if this is good or bad news, but Miguel Cabrera has played his last game in Guaranteed Rate Field. The team honored him pregame.

It was definitely a bittersweet moment, because while Cabrera is a great player and future Hall-of-Famer, I have too many memories of him beating us over the last 10+ years. Either way, the game will miss him.

The team will head to Kauffman Stadium to play the Kansas City Royals tomorrow afternoon. Game time is at 1:10 p.m. CT, and Jesse Scholtens will be on the mound against Cole Ragans. Everyone enjoy this Labor Day weekend, and get ready for the early turnaround tomorrow — if you even plan on watching.

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