Tigers 10, White Sox 3: Raindrops and dingers aplenty

Two rain delays weren’t going to stop the Detroit Tigers tonight, as they torched the White Sox by a final score of 10-3.

Jeimer Candeario wasted no time getting to Michael Kopech, wrapping a leadoff home run around the right-field pole on a 2-2 fastball. It was an impressive 433-foot shot. As it turns out, Kopech was far from done givin’ up dingers.

Jordan Zimmermann, whose season could be charitably described as “meh,” got through an uneventful first inning, and the rain began to fall in the bottom of the second. In a way, though, it wasn’t much of a surprise: Kopech has started four times in the major leagues, and three of them have featured rain delays early in the game.

Luckily, the first delay was only 28 minutes before the action resumed. Zimm even finished the frame neatly by inducing a double-play grounder out of Yoan Moncada; through three, he only gave up a pair of singles and thrown a tidy 43 pitches.

Mikie Mahtook has been on an absolute tear: in the 57 at-bats up to and including the one he had in the fourth, he’s had seven home runs and eight walks. Mahtook’s home run was another impressive one, at 445 feet.

After Mahtook’s home run and a James McCann single, Ronny Rodriguez felt a little left-out, so he blasted a laser-beam himself to left; JaCoby Jones went back-to-back with Rodriguez by clearing the fence in right. Three home runs in seven pitches. That’s pretty fun — and, given the paltry offense around here these days, pretty surprising. After the dust settled on the top of the fourth, Detroit was ahead 7-0.

...and then the race was on to beat the oncoming rain. You’ve gotta get five innings in for a regulation game (4 ¹⁄₂ if the home team is leading, which it clearly wasn’t), and the Tigers were very interested in moving this game along to a conclusion. However, the top of the fifth with two out brought on another delay.

• Song played on Tigers Radio Network going into first delay: “Who’ll Stop the Rain” by CCR
• Song played going into second delay: “Let it Rain” by Eric Clapton

Both are fine songs, but holy crackers, go away, rain! We’re trying to win a ballgame here! The second delay was 33 minutes, and the crowd thinned even more. Once the tarp was pulled off, Zimmermann tried to make quick work of the top of the fifth; a very brisk strikeout, lineout, groundout made it official.

The Tigers piled-on with a field goal in the top of the sixth, making it 10-0. Buck Farmer took over for the sixth and despite a couple of hard-hit balls, kept the shutout going. Daniel Stumpf wasn’t quite so lucky, as a Rodriguez throwing error turned a sure double-play ball into the first Chicago run. Louis Coleman and Victor Alcantara finished up the evening for the Tigers’ pitching staff.

Stats and Notes

• Ronny Rodriguez stole his first base in the major leagues in the second inning.
• The double-play grounder induced by Jordan Zimmermann was only the third double play he’s gotten all year. I had to double-check to make sure that crazy statistic was true, and it is.
• In their last 21 road games before this road trip, the Tigers went 4-17. In this seven-game road trip, they went 4-3.
• The Toledo Mud Hens won game 1 of their best-of-five International League semifinal series against the Durham Bulls, 10-3. Daz Cameron went 3-for-3 and scored twice. Let’s go ‘Hens!
• The West Michigan Whitecaps also won game 1 of their best-of-three Midwest League quarterfinal series against the Great Lakes Loons, 6-0. Brad Bass went seven innings, giving up only six hits and striking out seven. Let’s go ‘Caps!
• A Bose-Einstein Condensate is a strange state of matter which only occurs at extremely low temperatures. It has some strange properties: you can stir it with a laser and produce a long-standing vortex, strong magnetic fields can cause it to explode, and it sometimes exhibits superfluidity.

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