DETROIT — The Chicago White Sox were two outs away from salvaging the finale of a three-game series.
Those final outs never came.
The Detroit Tigers scored three runs in the ninth to rally and beat the Sox 4-3 in front of 20,981 on Sunday at Comerica Park.
Spencer Torkelson capped the comeback with the walk-off hit for the Tigers, driving in two with a double near the left-field corner.
“Credit the Tigers there for continuing to battle,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “But just too many walks out of the bullpen. We expect better out of those guys.”
It was a rough ending to a tough series for the Sox (2-7), who were swept. They’ve lost five straight.
The Sox completed Sunday’s game without designated hitter Andrew Benintendi, who exited with left adductor tightness. He is day to day, according to the Sox.
“I think it was part of running into the wall yesterday,” Venable said, referring to a leaping catch Benintendi made in left field during Saturday’s first inning. “He felt OK today. And then that first at-bat, (it) started flaring up on him a little bit and we just want to do the right thing (and) get him out of there.”
Benintendi had two at-bats before being replaced by Nick Maton in the fifth.
Here are three more takeaways from the series at Comerica Park.
1. The walks came back to bite the Sox on Sunday.
Reliever Fraser Ellard got Kerry Carpenter to ground out to second baseman Brooks Baldwin with two on to end the eighth on Sunday.
Ellard returned for the ninth with the Sox leading 3-1.
After surrendering a leadoff single, Ellard got Trey Sweeney to hit a grounder to Jacob Amaya. The shortstop was near second base and stepped on the bag, but the Sox couldn’t complete the double play as Sweeney beat the throw to first.
A 10-pitch battle with Zach McKinstry followed, resulting in a walk on a 3-2 pitch.
“McKinstry had a really good at-bat, kind of threw everything I had at him,” Ellard said. “And I think after that, I needed to take a breath and then focus and get back into Riley Greene and didn’t do that. That was the lapse right there.”
Greene walked on four pitches to load the bases. Jordan Leasure entered and walked Andy Ibáñez, bringing home a run to cut the Sox lead to 3-2. Torkelson then ended the game with the two-run double to left.
The Sox issued eight walks Sunday, six coming from four of the five relievers after 6 1/3 strong innings from starter Martín Pérez. The lefty allowed one run on four hits with four strikeouts and two walks in his follow-up to six no-hit innings on March 31 against the Minnesota Twins.
But the Sox couldn’t hold off the Tigers.
“When our bullpen is in the zone, it’s going to be hard to beat us,” Ellard said. “We were prepared. We did a good job of executing a lot of stuff today. It really comes down to I walked two guys and those guys came in and scored.”
2. An aggressive approach could become a team staple.
Matt Thaiss was on the move, attempting to score from first on a double to left by Brooks Baldwin in the second inning on Friday.
“Once I saw the ball off the bat, (scoring) was kind of all I was thinking about,” Thaiss said Saturday.
The catcher had just rounded third when Tigers shortstop Trey Sweeney received a throw from left fielder Kerry Carpenter.
Sweeney threw a one-hopper to the plate, but catcher Dillon Dingler couldn’t hold on to it as he attempted to tag Thaiss, who maneuvered his hands out of the way during his headfirst slide and then dove back to make sure he touched the plate.
“(On-deck batter Travis Jankowski) was giving me great information, telling me to slide away,” Thaiss said.
The aggressive send from third-base coach Justin Jirschele paid off for the Sox.
“It was a great send,” Venable said.
Venable had third-base coach duties with the Chicago Cubs in 2020. He said a number of factors come into play when deciding whether to wave someone home or hold them at third.
“I think it’s dependent on, obviously, the score,” Venable said. “Dependent on where you’re at in the lineup, dependent on the flow of the game. Are we putting up a bunch of zeros, is this a high run-scoring environment where we don’t need to be as aggressive?
“There’s a lot of different factors. I think for us, as things have kind of unfolded here, I think that we’ve been aggressive in everything that we’ve done. And I think that’s what we’re going to have to do.”
3 Mike Tauchman made an impact in his Sox debut.
Mike Tauchman worked a full count before hitting a Jackson Jobe fastball the other way for a single to left field to begin Sunday’s game.
The right fielder went 1-for-3 with a run and a walk in his Sox debut.
Before Sunday’s game, the Sox returned Tauchman from his injury rehabilitation assignment at Triple-A Charlotte and reinstated him from the 10-day injured list.
Tauchman had been out with a strained right hamstring suffered during spring training.
“Fortunate that it was pretty mild and we didn’t miss too much time,” Tauchman said Sunday morning.
The Sox signed Tauchman to a one-year deal during the offseason.
In Sunday’s corresponding move, the Sox designated Jankowski for assignment.
