Starting a nine-game road trip with a visit to Detroit, tonight’s game was about the surprise call-up of Jake Burger. After suffering two Achilles injuries that sidelined Burger for multiple seasons, it was a night to celebrate his achievement and he did it in style with two hits. Add home runs from Gavin Sheets and Andrew Vaughn, and the future White Sox sluggers provided the power to back Lance Lynn.
Tim Anderson led off the first inning with an infield single and advanced to second base on Gavin Sheets ground out. After Jose Abreu struck out looking for the second out, it was up to Yasmani Grandal to not squander the early scoring opportunity. With the shift on, Grandal hit a single through to right field that scored Anderson giving the White Sox an early 1-0 lead.
Brian Goodwin followed, and he split the left-center field gap with a line drive. As the ball rolled to the wall, Grandal was on his high horse. After a bobble at the wall, Grandal rounded third base and made it from home on Goodwin’s RBI triple. A pretty impressive feat for Grandal, who is one of the slowest runners in baseball.
Given a two-run lead, Lance Lynn had a grind for six innings. Detroit had good scoring opportunities in the first, fifth, and sixth innings against Lynn.
In the first inning, with runners on first and third, Lynn induced an infield pop-up from Miguel Cabrera for the second out. Jeimer Candelario whiffed on Lynn’s cutter for a strikeout to end that threat.
Zack Collins replaced Grandal in the fifth inning as the White Sox primary catcher left the game with calf tightness. Working with Collins, Lynn struck out Willi Castro to start the inning but allowed back-to-back singles to Jake Rogers and Akil Baddoo. After a mound visit, Jonathan Schoop pounced on the first pitch from Lynn hitting a deep fly to left field. Unfortunately for Detroit, the fly ball lost momentum at the warning track and resulted in a sacrifice fly.
Lynn’s final inning showed his mettle. A pitch count rapidly growing, Lynn fought with his command as he walked Candelario and threw a wild pitch to put him on second base. Daz Cameron was next to hit and made good contact driving a fly ball to left field. Andrew Vaughn was in pursuit and realized he wouldn’t be able to run down the fly. He opted to make a diving attempt, and it produced one of the game’s most significant moments. A web gem as Vaughn kept his eye on the ball as it landed in his glove and kept Candelario on second base.
After striking out Castro, Lynn’s fatigued showed against Castro. Missing his target in the first three pitches, the White Sox opted to walk Castro to save a bullet. With the go-ahead run on first base, Rogers gave Lynn a tough time. Fouling off two well-placed fastballs up in the zone. On Lynn’s 117th pitch of the night, Rogers couldn’t make contact on another high four-seamer.
The final line for Lynn was 6 IP 4 H 1 ER 5 BB 9 K with 66 strikes on 117 pitches. An uncharacteristic high walk total for Lynn was to blame for his demanding workload, but he found a way to limit the damage. Lynn’s season ERA is at 2.02.
Vaughn followed up on his sensational grab in the seventh inning by doubling down the left-field line. After Adam Eaton flew out to right field that wasn’t deep enough for Vaughn to advance on, it was Burger’s turn to generate some offense. It wasn’t great contact from Burger, who hit a routine fly ball to center field, but it was anything but routine for Cameron. Lost in the lights, Cameron stood helplessly as Burger’s fly ball landed behind him a good ten feet away. Vaughn only advanced to third base on the hit, but Burger kept hustling and reached second base. An unorthodox double for Burger’s first major league hit.
Danny Mendick cashed in the White Sox fortunate situation with a fly ball that Cameron did see and caught but was deep enough for Vaughn to tag up and score. Mendick’s sacrifice fly put the White Sox ahead, 3-1.
Codi Heuer and Jose Ruiz were tasked to build a bridge to Liam Hendriks, and the results were good even though the command was still a bit shaky. Both struck out two batters in their innings while giving up a single hit, but credit to Heuer and Ruiz for taking advantage of the Tigers’ aggressive hitters.
Hendriks wasn't needed tonight because the White Sox offense poured it on in the ninth inning. It started with Vaughn’s second extra-base hit of the night. An absolute no-doubter of a home run to left field to make it 4-1.
Eaton singled to left field and advanced to third base off Burger’s second hit of the night as he made a good swing on a slider located on the outside corner. The result was a single poked to right field, but it’s a swing that Burger should get familiar with after watching previous White Sox young hitters struggle against that pitch.
Mendick picked up another RBI with a hard-hit single through the pulled-in infield putting the White Sox ahead 5-1. Gavin Sheets destroyed Buck Farmer’s high fastball for a 425-foot three-run homer to place an exclamation point on the night.
Game Notes:
- A crooked number in the ninth inning also pushed the White Sox consecutive games streak of scoring seven-plus runs to five. They had a similar streak from May 8 to 12, where they scored nine runs in three straight games.
- Seby Zavala was pulled from his start in Charlotte after Yasmani Grandal left tonight’s game. Something to monitor if the White Sox opts to place Grandal on the IL to give him additional rest through the All-Star break.
- Adam Eaton went 2-for-4 in his first game back from injury.
- The White Sox are now 9-2 against Detroit in 2021.
