BREAKING: Tigers key man insists he wants to leave.
There was a time when they had one of the most exciting teams in baseball, had just hired a talented young announcer certain to reel in new fans and were considered World Series contenders.
What’s it been? Well, according to the calendar, that was just two years ago.
While it may feel like a long-gone era, the 2022 nucleus of hitters is still around. The broadcaster, Jason Benetti, left to join the Tigers, but the White Sox did pay tribute on the videoboard before the third inning of Thursday’s opener on the South Side.
The White Sox could get nothing going offensively, though, and lost to Detroit 1-0. Former Cub Javy Baez produced the game’s only run in the third inning when he singled, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly.
“Great ballgame,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “That was two really good pitching staffs getting after it.”
This was a great game for fans of pitching velocity. Crochet peaked at 99.8 mph, according to Statcast. Tigers starter Tarik Skubal hit 99.3, while Detroit closer Jason Floey reached 101.3.
“They executed well, they preyed on our aggressiveness,” said shortstop Paul DeJong, the Antioch native making his White Sox debut. “Skubal had good life on his fastball, especially up in the zone, and we couldn’t get a lot of quality contact off him.”
The one time it looked like the White Sox offense might lock in was the seventh inning, after Skubal was replaced by Shelby Miller. Eloy Jimenez hit a sharp liner to left that was caught. Greg Vaughn followed with a rocket to left that was just foul.
But Vaughn ended up striking out on a pitch-clock violation, and the inning was over one batter later. The previous pitch to Vaughn was up and in and bounced off his bat for a foul ball.
“Ball was up and in, hit the knob of my bat,” Vaughn said. “I was kind of startled, looked up, looked back at the clock and it said nine seconds. I guess I got called on it. I felt it was definitely too quick because I’m usually back in that box.”
Prior to the opener, new White Sox general manager Chris Getz talked about prioritizing defense, raising the IQ of the team and having some “interesting arms” on a revamped pitching staff.
Those goals came true, minus the offense. Naperville Central graduate Nicky Lopez became the Sox’ 12th Opening Day second baseman in 12 years and made a couple tough plays in the field.
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