Detroit Tigers waste Michael Lorenzen gem in 2-1 (10) loss to White Sox: Game thread recap
Detroit Tigers (26-29) vs. Chicago White Sox (24-35)
When: 2:10 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.
TV: Bally Sports Detroit.
Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1 in Detroit; Tigers radio affiliates).
Starting pitchers: Tigers RHP Michael Lorenzen (2-2, 3.50 ERA) vs. White Sox RHP Dylan Cease (3-3, 4.88).
Tigers lineup:
SS Javier Báez
LF Akil Baddoo
C Eric Haase
DH Nick Maton
2B Zack Short
CF Jake Marisnick
P Michael Lorenzen
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Game notes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That should be Michael Lorenzen’s motto as he makes his first start in June after posting a 1.95 ERA — that’s seven earned runs in 32⅓ innings — last month. That hot run, which is certainly making Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris look pretty good, included 6⅔ innings of two-run (none earned) ball last weekend against the White Sox. Lorenzen retired the first 17 batters he faced before Romy González broke up the perfect game in the sixth inning.
The right-hander has found success by simplifying his pitch repertoire and leaning heavily on his four-seam fastball — he’s throwing it 35.9% of the time, up from 21.4% last season and 27.2% in 2021. Against the ChiSox, Lorenzen doubled down on the heater, with 39 of his 95 pitches — 41.1% — registering as four-seamers, with an average velocity of 93.7 mph. That kept the White Sox hitters off balance; he registered just nine whiffs or called strikes on the four-seamer, with Chicago making contact on 21 fastballs. Only six of those went into play, with 15 fouled off, for five outs and a single (by Yoan Moncada in the seventh inning).
The White Sox, meanwhile, will send Dylan Cease to the mound. The righty, who finished second in AL Cy Young voting last season thanks to a gaudy 2.20 ERA and a natty mustache. (OK, it was probably more the result of the former than the latter.) But the underlying stats — namely, an MLB-high 78 walks in 184 innings — suggested a regression toward league average, and, sure, enough, Cease has already allowed three-fourths of his earned run total from all of last season (34 in 2023, 45 in 2022). That’s largely thanks to 29 walks in just 62⅔ innings, including four in his four-inning start Sunday against the Tigers in Detroit. Cease struck out eight, but also surrendered four runs on four hits — the biggest of which was Akil Baddoo’s third-inning grand slam.
After today, the Tigers and White Sox wrap up the series with another day game Sunday on the South Side before going their separate ways; the Tigers will head straight to Philly for a reunion with Dave Dombrowski, Nick Castellanos, Gregory Soto and, of course, Kody Clemens during a three-game set on Monday-Wednesday. The ChiSox, meanwhile, hit the road for a three-game set against the New York Yankees, who are somehow just 7-6 against the AL Central this season.
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Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers lose to Chicago White Sox, 2-1 (10): Game thread recap
