Tigers 4, White Sox 2: Losing season locked in

10:50 PM CDT on September 1, 2023

It probably was asking too much for the White Sox to win their final 28 games of the season, but on the bright side, the White Sox didn't guarantee a below-.500 record until the final month of the season.

The White Sox's 82nd loss of the season was a relatively humdrum one. The White Sox staked Touki Toussaint to the smallest of leads, which he couldn't quite hold. They tried to rally late, but couldn't quite do it.

There was a dopey defensive sequence in the sixth inning, but even that paled in comparison to, say, the first inning from the previous game in Baltimore.

The Tigers had just snagged a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning on a two-run single by Riley Greene, and then Toussaint tried to start the sixth. He walked Spencer Torkelson, but after striking out Kerry Carpenter, he gave up an opposite-field single to Miguel Cabrera that put runners on the corners and chased him from the game.

Parker Meadows greeted Sammy Peralta by hitting a pop fly to shallow right field. Lenyn Sosa backpedaled, caught the ball, then flipped the ball as quickly as he could toward home plate in order to keep Torkelson at third.

Torkelson indeed retreated ... until Andrew Vaughn failed to smother or otherwise block the short-hop on Sosa's throw. He deflected it up and away from him, and Torkelson raced home before Vaughn could collect the ball in front of the mound for a 3-1 score. Sosa was charged with the error, but Vaughn could've done more.

Almost making matters worse Jake Rogers singled to left to move Cabrera to second with two outs, followed by Zach Short doing the same. The Tigers insulted Andrew Benintendi's arm by sending Cabrera from second, and while Benintendi's one-hop throw beat Cabrera with a few strides to spare, Korey Lee almost let Cabrera slide through the five hole before his tag actually touched leg.

In fact, he might've. Fortunately for Lee, Cabrera was originally called out, and Cabrera kicked up enough dirt to make the replay inconclusive. That was really the only notable sequence, for better or for worse.

Tim Anderson and Benintendi had decent days at the top of the order, teaming up for both runs. In the third, Anderson drew a two-out walk from Eduardo Rodriguez, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Benintendi's single to center. In the eighth, Anderson led off with a single, advanced to third on Benintendi's bloop double inside the left-field line, and scored on Luis Robert Jr.'s sac fly.

The rest of the lineup didn't summon the same impact, and the bottom of the order gave Anderson and Benintendi nothing to work with. Lenyn Sosa grounded into two double plays, Oscar Colás went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in a start against the lefty Rodriguez, and Korey Lee's batting average fell to .056.

Bullet points:

*The White Sox finished -4 in stolen bases. The Tigers went 3-for-3, including a pinch-running swipe by Akil Baddoo that turned into a run in the eighth inning, whereas Robert was cut down on the Sox's only attempt.

*Only 15,105 showed up for a holiday-weekend Friday. This was the vibe.