Pregame notes: Enlisting The Dart to stop a skid

DETROIT -- When it truly comes to the most upside in the White Sox rotation, it might be Shane Smith and his ungodly low-90s seam effects changeup, which is not a kick change like Davis Martin and Grant Taylor throw, he'll have you know. He's not doing the distinct finger spiking that gives that pitch its name.

"It's seam-shifted: no spike, no kick, I'm just throwing the hell out of it," Smith said. "I'm just letting the seams take care of the movement. I'm not trying to do anything to it."

When it comes to blending that upside with present ability, obviously the Sox gave Sean Burke the opening day nod. When it comes to the most low-maintenance, 'does his thing no matter the matchup' starter, well, Martín Pérez has yet to give up a hit this season. But all is this to say, there's a real internal school of thought that Davis Martin is the best starting pitcher the White Sox currently have, and thus the ideal guy to toe the slab with the aim of stopping a three-game losing streak.

"Just under control, I would say, kind of in everything that he does," said Will Venable. "[Martin's] a great guy and just extremely professional. Just seems like he's got an idea of what he wants to do and goes out and executes it. And that's in his bullpens and in his work, just a real pro."

You can certainly expect plenty of kick changes from Martin.

"I love my changeup, it's going to get thrown often. Scouting reports are going to show that for every team. I'm not going to shy away from or try to hide in certain counts. All in all, it's a pitch I'm going to lean on."

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Matt Thaiss' mad dash on Friday to score from first on Brooks Baldwin's double despite the ball beating him to the plate by...a lot, was both a third base send that probably won't work very often, but the rationale was clear enough. No. 9 hitter Travis Jankowski was on deck with two outs, and he struck out on four pitches to end the inning afterward.

"Tiring," Thaiss joked about the experience. "Once I saw the ball off the bat, that was kind of all I was thinking about. Good send."

The White Sox could find themselves often justifying such aggressive moves for similar reasons this season.

"It's dependent on, obviously the score," Venable said. "Dependent on where you're at in the lineup, dependent on the flow of the game. Are we putting up a bunch of zeros, is this a high run-scoring environment where we don't need to be as aggressive? So I think there's a lot of different factors. I think for us, as things have kind of unfolded here, I think that we've been aggressive in everything that we've done. And I think that's what we're going to have to do."

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Not relevant to this series, but trivia enthusiasts might be interested to find out that the White Sox have not beaten the Tigers at home since June 4, 2023, when Jake Burger's walk-off grand slam made Liam Hendriks the winning pitcher, with Michael Kopech taking a no decision despite seven innings of two-run ball.

The 10-straight home losses to the Tigers are a franchise record.

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First pitch: White Sox at Tigers

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM

Lineups: