Detroit Tigers lose to Chicago White Sox, attention turns to playoffs

Detroit ― Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

The Tigers are happily hitting the reboot button for the playoffs after a pair of lackluster performances in the final two games of the regular season and two losses to the historically terrible Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park.

Chicago defeated Kenta Maeda and Detroit 9-5 in the final game of the regular season on Sunday. It was only the third time the Tigers have lost consecutive games since they officially got hot on Aug. 11, falling 4-0 on Saturday, a day after they surprisingly secured a playoff spot. It's the first time since the 29th-30th. August that they lost consecutive games at home.

With the loss and the Kansas City Royals' 4-2 win over the Atlanta Braves, the Tigers will open the playoffs with a best-of-three series against the Astros in Houston starting Tuesday. The winner of this series will face the American League Central champion Cleveland Guardians in the Division Series.

“It's a fresh start,” said Matt Vierling, one of two Tigers with Major League Baseball playoff experience, with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022. “Obviously the last few games haven't gone our way, but you know, we had the feeling. “We had a lot of momentum. So this is the first time we've been here in a while, the first time in the postseason.

“It’ll be a lot of fun.”

BOX SCORE: White Sox 9, Tigers 5

MLB STAND

The Tigers were scheduled to travel to Houston on Sunday night and hold a day of practice on Monday as they work to assemble their 26-player roster.

Maeda, the other Tiger with playoff experience (six seasons, four with the Los Angeles Dodgers, two with the Minnesota Twins), who was already well away from making the playoff roster, did himself no favors on Sunday and allowed five runs on five hits, including a long home run by Lenyn Sosa to left-center field in the third inning. It was Sosa's eighth home run.

Maeda (3-7) stormed through the first inning as the White Sox, seemingly eager to end this misery of a season after setting a major league record for losses with their 121st game on Friday night, All but one pitch hit balls.

But they scored two runs in the second inning, with Sosa and Bryan Ramos hitting back-to-back singles and Korey Lee following with a two-run single to make it 1-0. Dominic Fletcher then threw a ball into flat midfield, where Parker Meadows attempted another spectacular move, albeit with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.

The next inning, Maeda walked leadoff hitter Miguel Vargas, Zach DeLoach had a one-out single, and with two outs, Sosa hit the home run that silenced another large Comerica Park crowd. Maeda threw 89 pitches, his most in a game since Aug. 22, as manager AJ Hinch tried to preserve his best bullpen arms in recent days.

The Tigers' offense was of no use in the first four innings against White Sox starter Jonathan Cannon (5-10) before he walked the bases in the fifth inning.

That set the stage for Kerry Carpenter, who launched a grand slam to right-center field, energizing a crowd of 41,740 as the Tigers got to 5-4. That ended Detroit's scoreless streak of 14 innings.

But two innings later, the White Sox struck out again, this time against Keider Montero, who entered the game after Casey Mize allowed the first two runners to reach him. Montero gave up a two-run single from the opposite field to Ramos, who barely left home plate before the ball landed fair. Korey Lee's Vierling grounder to third scored another run, and Jacob Amaya tied the score with an RBI single to make it 9-4 before the Tigers sold out for the third straight game. (They drew 128,108 for the series, the most for a three-game series at Comerica Park since July 2012.)

Detroit had one last gasp in the eighth, loading the bases with two outs against reliever Prelander Berroa, leading Spencer Torkelson to make it 9-5. That brought up another fifth pitcher of the day for the White Sox, Enyel De Los Santos, who got Trey Sweeney to hit back to the mound to end the threat.

The Tigers, who finished the season 10-3 against the White Sox, had two fumbles in the game (Vierling and Sweeney), a passed ball (Rogers) and a runner caught at first (Wenceel Perez). The Tigers' pitchers allowed the most runs since a 10-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs on August 22, best known as Javy Báez's final game. Manager AJ Hinch was ejected in the ninth inning after replay confirmed a catch by right fielder Fletcher on a ball to the wall by Zach McKinstry, although it appeared as if Fletcher bobbled the ball and it hit the wall. Hinch was thrilled and the audience appreciated it. The crowd booed as the umpires left the field after the final outs and Carpenter called a double play.

“Expulsion on the last day of your bingo card… you know,” Hinch quipped after receiving his first exclusion of the season. “I just told them I understood auto-ejection (to argue instant replay), but they deflected a punch from Z-Mac. I thought it was pretty clear he hit the wall. Maybe they didn't have the right angle.” You can see that in the right fielder's reaction. And I just thought it was an injustice, like he deserved a hit.

“Who knows how this inning goes, but our team’s defense and Z-Mac’s defense. That was easy. And I just thought New York (replay officials) missed it.”

The White Sox finished the season with five wins in their last six games, despite setting the major league mark for futility. They face an offseason of uncertainty with big decisions coming before general manager and Metro Detroit native Chris Getz – from the roster to the manager. Grady Sizemore is the interim manager.

The Tigers finished the regular season at 86-76, their best record since achieving the same record in 2016. They are heading to the postseason for the first time since 2014, for the second time as a wild card, for the first time since 2006. There they were eight games under .500 after losing on August 10, then compiled the best record in baseball through the regular-season finale and surpassed 500-to-1 odds to make the playoffs. On Friday evening, in front of more than 44,000 spectators, they achieved their highest audience since opening day and then celebrated late into the night with beer, champagne and the like.

A hangover was expected on Saturday, but it continued for most of Sunday, with another game and another loss, although neither, which was of great importance.

The next games are of course the most important. It's time for baseball in October.

It's time for a fresh start.

“We believe,” outfielder Riley Greene said. “We believe we can do anything.”

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@tonypaul1984

Detroit Tigers lose to Chicago White Sox, attention turns to playoffs

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