Blooper carries Tigers to victory in series opener over White Sox

After a less-than-stellar trip to Houston, the Tigers home and had an off day to sit there and think about what they’ve done, mister. But, since the sport rolls on, the American Central-leading Chicago White Sox came to town (and yes, that looks weird to me too) for the opener of a three-game weekend series on a windy Friday night which promised to make fly balls an adventure. After the lead changed hands a couple of times, a well-timed, well-placed, 2-run blooper was the difference in a 4-3 Tigers win.

Tarik Skubal made his second start since coming off the Injured List; his first one wasn’t great, but there must have been some rust that he had to shake off. When healthy this year he’s usually been the same ol’ Cy Skubal, with an ERA of 2.81 (154 ERA+), a WHIP of 0.979, and seven walks given-out in 48 innings coming into tonight’s game.

Brandon Eisert was an opener for Erick Fedde; Eisert’s in his second full season in the major leagues, after spending a bit of time with the Blue Jays in 2024. He’s opened a few times this year, so this wasn’t anything new for him. Fedde was drafted by the Nationals and spent several ho-hum years there; he then went to South Korea in 2023 and had an ERA of 2.00 with a 20-6 record. He came back to North America after that season and hasn’t been able to duplicate the success he had in Korea; maybe he can’t find any good japchae here.

Randal Grichuk, who is only in the major leagues because he hits lefties, hit a lefty: a solo home run in the top of the first put Chicago up 1-0.

Matt Vierling got that run back and added one with a two-run home run after a Dillon Dingler single, putting the Tigers up 2-1 in the bottom of the first.

In the top of the fourth Junior Pérez, in his fourth major-league at-bat, hit a single — his first major-league hit — to right field. Who fielded it? Trei Cruz, making his major-league debut tonight. That’s always nice to see. But then Pérez tried to steal second, forgot it was Dingler back there, and was thrown out stealing. Whoops! Pérez wasn’t done yet, though.

Skubal got into a little trouble in the fifth: a pair of singles to start the inning put runners on the corners. Tristan Peters then hit a ground ball to second base; an on-the-field call of a 4-6-3 double play would have traded two outs for the runner from third scoring, but upon review the out at first was overturned, tying the game with only one out instead. A single and a walk loaded the bases; a grounder was hit to Colt Keith at third who came home with the throw for the second out. Skubal had Colson Montgomery at a 1-2 count and he pulled the string on a low changeup for strike three. A fired-up Skubal — always a sight to see — was seen shouting at the White Sox dugout after the strikeout, and I don’t think he was exchanging chocolate-chip cookie recipes.

Pérez, in his fifth major-league at-bat in the sixth, took Skubal deep to the left-centrefield seats for a solo home run to put Chicago up 3-2, which was surprising. With two outs in the sixth Skubal gave way to Drew Anderson, who got Luisangel Acuña to strike out looking. Skubal’s final line: 5 2/3 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 8 K. Not bad, but not very Skuballish.

Meanwhile, Fedde was mowin’ ’em down, retiring nine straight before a Dingler leadoff single in the sixth. A one-out Riley Greene walk put two runners on base for the first time all night for the Tigers; Spencer Torkelson popped up to second base for the second out. But Kerry Carpenter hit the bloopiest of bloopers to short centrefield, scoring both Dingler and Greene to put the Tigers up 4-3.

I mean, that was a really bad decision for Peters to dive for that ball, but I will absolutely take it ten times out of ten.

Anderson carried on and had a decently-uneventful seventh inning, and Will Vest came on for the eighth. He’s been shaky lately, and walking the leadoff batter in a one-run game isn’t quite what we all had in mind, but it happened (especially since Vest got ahead of him 0-2 first). Vest then got Edgar Quero to hit a perfect grounder to second base, and a crisp double play was turned to erase the baserunner. Another grounder to second base precipitated the third out of the inning, and whadda ya know, Vest got the job done.

After failing to get any insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, Kenley Jansen was brought in to try and nail down the save against the bottom of the order. He got a ground ball to first (and covered the bag himself), got a ground ball to second, and ended things with swinging strikeout of Peters. That’s how you do it, folks.

• As you may have heard, Trei Cruz is a third-generation Major League Baseball player, following his grandfather José Cruz, and his father, José Cruz Jr. Welcome to The Show, young man!

• Tarik Skubal’s left-right splits are truly bizarre this year. It may be SSS (Small Sample Size) at work, but check this out: coming into tonight, righties (146 plate appearances) have hit .190 with a .512 OPS. Lefties (41 PA): .359 average, .954 OPS.

• You know that Family Guy scene in which Stewie (the baby) keeps irritatingly calling for his mom? Yeah, our kid is in that phase right now.

• Today is Juneteenth, a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the end of slavery. On June 19, 1865, a major in the US Army in Texas ordered that the Emancipation Proclamation be enforced in that state, despite it being officially put into effect by the federal government on January 1, 1863. Since Texas was pretty far out west and there weren’t many Union troops out there during the Civil War, enforcement of Emancipation was pretty lacklustre, and it was on that date in 1865 that it was permanently enshrined in the state.

As you may have heard, Trei Cruz is a third-generation Major League Baseball player, following his grandfather José Cruz, and his father, José Cruz Jr. Welcome to The Show, young man!

Tarik Skubal’s left-right splits are truly bizarre this year. It may be SSS (Small Sample Size) at work, but check this out: coming into tonight, righties (146 plate appearances) have hit .190 with a .512 OPS. Lefties (41 PA): .359 average, .954 OPS.

You know that Family Guy scene in which Stewie (the baby) keeps irritatingly calling for his mom? Yeah, our kid is in that phase right now.

Today is Juneteenth, a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the end of slavery. On June 19, 1865, a major in the US Army in Texas ordered that the Emancipation Proclamation be enforced in that state, despite it being officially put into effect by the federal government on January 1, 1863. Since Texas was pretty far out west and there weren’t many Union troops out there during the Civil War, enforcement of Emancipation was pretty lacklustre, and it was on that date in 1865 that it was permanently enshrined in the state.