Spencer Torkelson hit a tiebreaking solo home run in the seventh inning, Tarik Skubal worked seven solid innings and the Detroit Tigers ran their winning streak to four games with a 3-2 win over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.
Torkelson turned on a full-count sidearm sweeper from Aaron Bummer with two outs, and launched it 436 feet into the bleachers in left field for his team-leading 25th homer that gave Detroit a 3-2 lead. Carson Kelly drove in two runs with a double in the second inning that tied the game at 2 as the Tigers completed a three-game sweep of Chicago.
White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson doubled to lead off the first for his 1,000th career hit, all with Chicago. He added a single and finished 2 for 4.
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Eloy Jiménez and Elvis Andrus had RBIs for Chicago, which has lost three in a row and five of six.
Skubal (4-3) allowed two runs in the first and then settled down. The 26-year-old left-hander allowed five hits with seven strikeouts and two walks in his longest outing since returning on July 4 from left forearm flexor tendon surgery.
Jason Foley pitched a perfect eighth and Alex Lange worked around a single and walk in the ninth for his 21st save. The Tigers closed the game with a snazzy 4-6-3 double play.
White Sox News
White Sox starter Michael Kopech walked five of the first 10 Detroit batters he faced and was replaced by Tanner Banks with two outs in the second. Kopech allowed two runs on the five passes and one hit, missing the strike zone with 28 of 44 pitches.
Bummer (4-4), the fourth of six Chicago relievers, took the loss.
Anderson lined his milestone double to the left-center wall in the bottom of the first. He scored on Jimenez’s two-out single. Andrus then added an RBI bloop single to put Chicago ahead 2-0.
Kopech walked Matt Vierling and Parker Meadows on eight straight balls to open the second. Both scored on Kelly’s double just inside the third-base line.
ANOTHER QUICK HOOK
RHP Jimmy Lambert, Chicago’s second reliever on Sunday, exited abruptly in the fifth with right ankle soreness while facing his second hitter.
Lambert had a 2-1 count on Kerry Carpenter when manager Pedro Grifol signaled for Bryan Shaw. Shaw struck out Carpenter to retire the side.
MIGGY OFF
Tigers INF Miguel Cabrera was held out of the starting lineup as expected in a day game following a night contest. The 40-year-old Cabrera, who plans on retiring at the end of the season, had four hits on Saturday night to move past George Brett into 17th place for all-time career hits with 3,158.
The White Sox’s Andrus, a friend of Cabrera and fellow Venezuelan, said he bought “Miggy” a parting gift of Rémy Martin Louis XIII cognac. A .75 liter bottle retails for $4,300 online at a major Chicago liquor store chain. “If I bought him something cheap, he’d throw it away,” Andrus quipped.
TRAINER’S ROOM
White Sox: All-Star CF Luis Robert Jr. sat out a second game with cramping in his right quad. Robert entered Sunday second in the AL with 35 homers. … Trayce Thompson, subbing in center, made a nice diving catch on Carson’s bloop with two runners on to close out the top of the sixth.
UP NEXT:
Tigers: Detroit had not yet named a starter for the opener of a three-game series against the Yankees in New York on Tuesday. RHP Gerrit Cole (12-4, 2.95) pitches for the Yankees.
White Sox: RHP Jesse Sholtens (1-6, 3.97) faces Royals LHP Cole Ragans (5-4, 3.27) on Monday in Kansas City.