They needed Michael Kopech to throw six no-hit innings and the help of questionable defense from the American League's second-worst team to score their runs, but the White Sox finally won a series opener, and at Guaranteed Rate Field to boot.
Kopech didn't get the win to represent the best game of his life. Instead, after Reynaldo López slipped out of jam for a scoreless seventh, the White Sox were able to smear two runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning, and that was good enough to return to above .500.
The biggest question is whether Luis Robert will have to miss any meaningful amount of time, or whether he'll have to play through something that will cost him a meaningful amount of impact. His propensity for sliding-related injuries returned when he jammed his wrist into Jonathan Schoop's leg attempting to steal second. He beat the throw, but he couldn't access the bag, and fell away in pain as Schoop collected the ball for the tag. Robert should've gone feet-first -- not just for his health, but because Schoop blocked the entire bag with his leg and spikes would've taught him the danger of doing so. Adam Engel replaced him in center field, and Robert was declared day-to-day after negative x-rays.
The White Sox rallied without him. Facing Alex Lange in the seventh, Yoán Moncada reached with one out when his lazy fly off the end of the bat fooled Akil Baddoo into breaking back, and it ended up dropping in front of him for a single. Josh Harrison singled to right, and after Lenyn Sosa flied out, AJ Pollock walked to load the bases.
Up came Andrew Vaughn, who hit his own soft, loopy drive to right center, and it fell between two deep-playing outfielders to score the game's only two runs.
It wasn't pretty, but the White Sox snapped their four-game losing streak in series openers, and their six-game losing streak in home series openers.
Kopech deserves the bulk of the credit, even if he was keeping the lowly Tigers' offense at bay. He struck out 11 over six innings, with three walks the only blemishes. He threw 56 of 85 pitches for strikes, and 56 of of 85 pitches for fastballs (they were not all the same pitches). The heater induced 17 of the 22 swinging strikes, but he complemented it with a slider that finally deserved real respect. He also threw six changeups and five curveballs, which didn't really do much aside from show how much fun he and Yasmani Grandal were having.
He didn't have a shot at completing the no-hitter, but he probably could've started the seventh inning with no objections. Instead, López got the ball, and when he allowed a single to Javier Báez, another gutting loss seemed to be in the works.
The Tigers tried. One line drive found Pollock in left, and another liner found Vaughn in right, with Baéz tagging to third on the latter. López then engaged in a battle with Jeimer Candelario, which ended with Candelario swinging through a curveball higher than he anticipated on the eighth pitch of their battle.
Kendall Graveman pitched around a two-out single for a scoreless eighth, and Liam Hendriks flirted with more drama in the ninth. He allowed a one-out single to Báez, then fell behind 3-1 to Harold Castro before Castro popped out on a fastball well inside for the second out. Miguel Cabrera came to the plate with the game on the line and hit a seemingly routine grounder to second, and he reacted as such until he saw Lenyn Sosa literally boot it toward second base. Had he ran hard the entire time, he would've reached on an E6. Because he gave away the first 20 feet, Josh Harrison was able to corral the carom and get the ball in first in time for an unlikely 6-4-3.
With the Tigers getting uninspiring corner outfield play, with poor plate discipline and poor timing on easing it out of the box, the White Sox basically played themselves and won.
The White Sox are still very much themselves. They outhit the Tigers 8-3, but Pollock contributed the game's only extra-base hit with a double, and he didn't score. The Sox were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10. They had the leadoff hitter aboard in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings and came away with nothing to show for it. Sosa continued to struggle, going 0-for-4 with five stranded from the ninth spot. Rallies keep getting to him because nobody earlier in the lineup can speed up the scoring process any.
And this was in a game started by Daniel Norris, a lefty who throws 90 and was DFA'd by the Cubs earlier in the year. He's the weakest pitcher of this series on paper, so here's hoping the Sox figure out a way to make it play out differently in practice.
Bullet points:
*Leury García pinch-ran for Eloy Jiménez, so hopefully that means his leg is healthy enough to provide support at shortstop.
*The Sox are still 3½ games behind Cleveland, which has won six in a row.
