:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67397148/usa_today_14922533.0.jpg)
Hopefully few of you stuck around to the end of this latest catastrophe. Michael Fulmer struggled, Daniel Norris struggled, and beyond that it didn’t matter as the White Sox did whatever they wanted in blowing the Tigers out by a score of 14-0.
The Tigers put two men on in the first inning, but Willi Castro struck out to end the threat. Castro did single with two outs in the fourth, and Jorge Bonifacio doubled to right field. Unfortunately, Castro hesitated coming around third and was thrown out at home when he would’ve scored otherwise. Anyway, that about covers the offense in this one.
Fulmer allowed a leadoff single to Tim Anderson in the first, as one does. He got Yoan Moncada to line out, and then after a tough at-bat, struck out Yasmani Grandal on a perfect 3-2 fastball that clearly tailed into the corner of the strikezone low and inside. Anderson was running on the pitch and Greiner popped up and gunned him down easily at second base to end the inning.
Except that’s not what happened. Nic Lentz called the pitch a ball, presumably because he lost sight of the pitch as Greiner popped up to throw, and simply guessed at it. Anderson was presumably pulling up seeing ball four called, so it’s impossible to know if the throw would’ve gotten him at second. Jose Abreu, Eloy Jimenez, and Edwin Encarnacion followed with three straight hits, and just like that the Tigers were down 3-0.
Three-run, 32-pitch first inning for Michael Fulmer, who threw some good breaking balls but struggled with others. Close 3-2 pitch to Yasmani Grandal wasn't the biggest, but one-out walk helped set things in motion. pic.twitter.com/b0ofuNHNs4
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) September 12, 2020
Fulmer allowed two more runs in the third inning before Daniel Norris came on to clean it up. Norris didn’t have it either unfortunately, as his command failed him in the fourth and he allowed a three-run shot to center field off the bat of Jose Abreu. If it wasn’t already over, that one did the trick.
Rony Garcia allowed four runs in the fifth inning. Nick Ramirez allowed two more, and the Tigers had long since packed it in at the plate. The Tigers have allowed 69 runs in the past week, and there was nothing nice about it. The Yankees won today as well, so it’s time to sit back and just see how the kids play over the final two weeks. It would’ve been fun to stay in it, but the play we’ve seen this week is much closer to the reality of the situation.