DETROIT -- The losingest season in modern MLB history is at a merciful end.
It didn't get the most thematically appropriate ending, because the White Sox channeled the 2003 Tigers and won five of the final six games of the worst season their franchises have ever known.
It did get a sort of earned ending, because Grady Sizemore spent the final weeks touting the necessity of playing young players, even if it involved strange optics like Yoán Moncada ending his White Sox career on the bench or Miguel Vargas helming the leadoff spot with a .150 batting average.
Viennese composer Franz Schubert's massive oeuvre went largely undiscovered until after his death, so what's the harm in waiting until the last day of the season to see these sorts of contributions?
- Vargas: Three times on base, run scored
- Zach DeLoach: Hit, walk, two runs scored
- Lenyn Sosa: Three hits, runs scored and RBI apiece, capped by a three-run homer
- Bryan Ramos: Three times on base, two hits, runs and RBI apiece
Sosa's three-run clout to left-center off a Kenta Maeda splitter capped a series of convincing at-bats against the Tigers' biggest free agent boondoggle of the previous winter. It also staked his team to an early 5-0 lead. And even if this was far too White Sox-ian of an affair for that to salt the game away, it did put the Tigers into half-hearted pursuit of the game for the rest of a cloudy afternoon.
Jonathan Cannon entered Sunday with an even 4.00 ERA since being recalled in early June, and through four sleepy, scoreless innings of weak contact, he seemed on the verge of locking in a closing figure worthy of his quietly solid rookie campaign. With workload restrictions sliding in, the longest Cannon could hope to go was the five innings necessary to qualify for his fifth win of the season.
He achieved as much, but all Sox Machine readers by now have become long acquainted with the idea of pyrrhic victory. And the degree to which the wheels clearly came off for Cannon, where he turned the Tigers lineup over by walking three of four hitters to load the bases for lefty Kerry Carpenter, made guiding the 24-year-old right-hander through the inning the only tangible reason for proceeding. Left-hander Fraser Ellard was warming as Carpenter launched a first-pitch Cannon fastball for a grand slam to right-center.
And there Ellard remained still as Cannon induced an inning-ending groundout to end the fifth clinging to a 5-4 lead. After paying the maximum cost, why eschew the reward?
The White Sox Bullpen Tries to Protect a One-Run Lead is a movie that's been seen countless times despite horrific Letterboxd reviews. But a series of unimpressive auditions for the Tigers playoff rotation undermined the typical climax. It didn't remove the typical climax, because Prelander Berroa walked three in the eighth including a bases loaded free pass to Spencer Torkelson to bring the tying run up, and a highly suspect-looking basket catch at the wall by Dominic Fletcher in ninth barely survived replay review. But it was undermined.
Casey Mize led off the seventh by yielding a single to Luis Robert Jr. and walking Zach DeLoach to disabuse any notions of providing six outs. Keider Montero arrived and struck out Andrew Vaughn, but let four of the next five hitters reach as the Sox put up a four-spot.
Ramos getting his bat clipped by Dillon Dingler’s catcher’s mitt but still punching a two-run single down the right field line was reflective of the type of luck the Sox were having. Where as Korey Lee's hot grounder kicking off Vierling at third was reflective of the effort of a Tigers team that had gone pedal to the metal for a month to earn a playoff spot, and idled for the final 48 hours.
Both clubs sealed up history on Friday night, and decided to play against type for the rest of the weekend.
Bullet points:
*Cannon had a 3.78 ERA on the season, if you removed his three outings against the Tigers (14 ER in 10 IP).
*Robert finished the season with a career-high 23 stolen bases. That DeLoach's seventh inning walk right behind it made his 23rd swipe functionally pointless is something only a grump would focus on.
*Andrew Vaughn finished the season with a .699 OPS. Among Sox hitters who qualified, he's your leader.
*This was the most attended three-game series in Comerica Park history since 2012.
*This was the second road series victory for the White Sox all season, and their first since also taking the second two of a three-game set in St. Louis on May 3-5. Cardinals fans booed their club off the field after that game. Tigers fans seem to feel differently about their team.
