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Detroit Tigers' offense blasts off in 11-2 win over Chicago White Sox
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- Detroit Tigers' offense blasts off in 11-2 win over Chicago White Sox
After scoring six runs in their previous six games, the Detroit Tigers wasted little time getting on the board Sunday against the Chicago White Sox , scoring five runs in the first inning and four more in the second to take a nine-run lead.
The Tigers rode the abundance of early runs to an 11-2 win over the White Sox — the worst team in baseball — in the finale of the three-game series at Comerica Park, winning their first series since June 3-5 (against the Texas Rangers ).
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The victory snapped a streak of four series losses in a row.
"It was a really good offensive day for us and continues to demonstrate to us that we're very capable," manager A.J. Hinch said, "and we need to be willing to grind out the at-bats like the way we did today. I thought it was awesome."
Right-hander Reese Olson shut down the White Sox while receiving run support from the Tigers, virtually for the first time all season. The Tigers scored nine runs with him on the mound in Sunday's game after averaging 1.5 runs with him on the mound in his previous 14 starts.
"Anytime you can mix in a day where you score double-digit runs, it's huge for the morale," Olson said.
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The 24-year-old made the run support count, allowing two runs on four hits with zero walks and three strikeouts across 6⅓ innings, throwing 97 pitches. It was Olson's second solid outing in a row after a stretch of three bad starts.
He has a 3.35 ERA in 15 starts.
"I approach the game the same way no matter what," Olson said. "No matter if we're winning or losing, I'm trying to go out there and compete and get as many outs as I can, and try to win."
The Tigers (36-41) have scored at least 10 runs in seven of their 77 games this season — 9.1% of the schedule so far — including three times in the past 13 games.
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In Sunday's finale, the Tigers annihilated White Sox right-hander Jonathan Cannon , a 23-year-old making the seventh appearance of his MLB career and coming off his best performance.
"Every day is a challenge," Hinch said, "and you try to enjoy these because we had a really good game, and we had really good at-bats, starting from the first at-bat of the game."
Leadoff hitter Matt Vierling opened the attack by smoking a second-pitch, middle-middle sinker for a triple to the gap in left-center field. Colt Keith , who has been working out of the two-hole recently, clobbered an elevated changeup for a two-run home run to left-center field for a 2-0 lead.
Keith has four home runs in 68 games.
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Mark Canha reached safely on a fielding error, Wenceel Pérez ripped a ground-rule double and then Canha scored on Gio Urshela 's groundout for a 3-0 advantage. After that, Akil Baddoo turned on Cannon's up-and-in fastball for a two-run home run to right-center field to increase the lead to 5-0.
Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Jonathan Cannon (48) sits in the dugout in the second inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in Detroit on Sunday, June 23, 2024.
Reese Olson rolls
Olson dominated the White Sox with his slider.
He threw sinkers in and sliders away to right-handed hitters, while using an even mix of fastballs, sliders and changeups to left-handed hitters.
"My slider is probably my best pitch," Olson said. "It was really good today. I was commanding it well. It had a good shape on it. When I'm able to do those things, it makes my life a lot easier."
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Olson racked up two of his three strikeouts for the second and third outs in the first inning, taking down Andrew Benintendi (swinging, 94.8 mph fastball) and Eloy Jiménez (swinging, 85.6 mph slider). He also struck out Andrew Vaughn (swinging, 78.5 mph curveball) for the first out in the fifth.
Two runs were charged to Olson's tab in the seventh inning, but those runners — Jiménez (single) and Gavin Sheets (double) — scored on Nicky Lopez 's two-run single off right-handed reliever Will Vest , who replaced Olson with two on and one out.
Olson generated 13 whiffs on 44 swings — a 29.5% whiff rate — with 10 sliders, one sinker, one fastball and one curveball. He averaged 23.3% changeups in his first 14 starts, but against the White Sox, he threw just 12.4% changeups, and as a result of fewer changeups, he threw more sliders.
"It's very important for him," Hinch said of Olson's slider. "It's also very important for him to throw the two styles of fastballs and not fall into being sinker happy. He's had quite a bit of success against the White Sox, and a lot of that is due to the right-on-right slider or the right-on-left slider. It was part of his plan, and he went in and executed, especially as counts got deeper."
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He posted a 1.92 ERA in his first 10 starts, a 10.43 ERA in his next three starts (against the Boston Red Sox , Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals ) and then a 1.46 ERA in his two most recent starts (against the Atlanta Braves and White Sox).
Olson seems to be back on track.
Detroit Tigers left fielder Riley Greene (31) is congratulated by third baseman Matt Vierling (8) and second baseman Colt Keith (33) after hitting a three-run home run in the second inning against the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park in Detroit on Sunday, June 23, 2024.
Zach McKinstry rakes
The Tigers scored their sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth runs before making their fourth out of the game.
The first three batters in the second inning — Jake Rogers , Vierling and Keith — produced singles to take a 6-0 lead and chase Cannon before he could record the first out of that inning.
"We wanted to attack his fastball and his changeup," Hinch said, "and then we go out and do it. ... It was well executed, really top to bottom, but specifically the top half of the lineup."
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The White Sox replaced Cannon with left-handed reliever Jared Shuster for a matchup with Greene. On the third pitch, the left-handed hitting Greene drove a middle-middle fastball the opposite way for a three-run home run to left-center field.
Greene's homer put the Tigers ahead, 9-0.
He has 15 home runs in 76 games this season.
The Tigers didn't score again until taking a 10-2 lead in the seventh inning, thanks to Zach McKinstry's solo home run off right-handed reliever Chad Kuhl . An RBI double from Pérez extended the Tigers' lead to 11-2 in the eighth inning.
Detroit Tigers shortstop Zach McKinstry (39) celebrates after hitting a home run in the seventh inning against the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park in Detroit on Sunday, June 23, 2024.
Keith finished 4-for-5 — his third four-hit game of the season — with three RBIs; Greene finished 2-for-4 with one walk and three RBIs; and Pérez finished 3-for-4 with one walk and one RBI. Vierling and McKinstry had the other multi-hit games.
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"His role on this team is going to be to fill in a lot of places and give a really tough at-bat," Hinch said of McKinstry, hitting .185 with a .546 OPS in 51 games. "He doesn't have a ton of at-bats to normalize the numbers, but you want him to have so much success so that he continues in that mindset of quality at-bat over damage, and then the damage comes when he's not necessarily trying to do it, but he's just putting up a really good at-bat."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Colt Keith just misses cycle as Detroit Tigers beat White Sox, 11-2
