The White Sox played the Detroit Tigers on Friday night in Chicago. All season, the White Sox handled their business against the motor city, but on Friday, the Tigers put up a fight. Their young ace, Casey Mize, had a no-hitter going through five innings, but the White Sox erupted for a four-run sixth inning to take the lead. The bullpen was in shut down mode and held the 4-3 lead, getting the White Sox’ 28th victory.
OF Eloy Jimenez came into his second season with lofty expectations and has exceeded them. Jimenez (.267AVG .513SLG) was great in his first season with the White Sox, and this season (.285AVG .564SLG), he has shown improvement. These two seasons showed the White Sox what they were hoping for when they traded for Jimenez, 40HR and 100RBI in 162 games.
Jimenez was the whole offense on Friday night. He went 2-4 1R 3RBI 1HR, the only White Sox with multiple hits in Friday’s contest. Not to mention, his three-run home run was the deciding factor. The White Sox have many great players, but Jimenez has shown that he might become the best player of this young core.
The bullpen hasn’t been as good as it was at the beginning of the year, so this performance was great to see from them. Lucas Giolito (5.2IP 4H 3ER 4BB 7K 114PC) was not himself. He had 45 pitches through the first two innings but was able to battle into the 6th. However, it was in the 6th that he allowed three runs. Ricky Renteria called in Evan Marshall to stop the bleeding, and the score 0-3.
Marshall followed it up with a scoreless 7th inning. Codi Heuer came into the 8th with a 13-pitch inning to shut the Tigers down to end the 8th. Alex Colome was called up for the first time in over a week, but he looked very sharp. He closed out the 9th inning in 16 pitches and picked up his 10th save of the season. These last 17 games are going to be brutal for the White Sox. They don’t have have any off days before the end of the season, which makes the bullpen critical.
The White Sox look to keep their winning ways going into Saturday night’s matchup between two struggling pitchers. Reynaldo Lopez will toe the hill for the White Sox while the Tigers will run out Michael Fulmer. Both pitchers have season ERA’s that are above eight, so this will be an offensive game. The White Sox are looking for their third straight victory to stay ahead of the Twins and Cleveland for the division crown.