Sawyer Gipson-Long shuts down White Sox in Detroit Tigers debut, 3-2 victory
As a child — at least according to his mother, Lili — Sawyer Gipson-Long’s first words were “Sit down, have a seat.”
It’s a phrase the Detroit Tigers prospect could have uttered a few times on Sunday as he made his MLB debut against the Chicago White Sox. The 25-year-old retired the first 10 batters of his big-league career and finished with two runs allowed on four hits over five-plus innings in the Tigers’ 3-1 victory over the White Sox.
As his mom said during an interview on Bally Sports Detroit, Gipson-Long learned the phrase at her side growing up in Marietta, Georgia. On Sunday in Detroit, he sent plenty of White Sox batters back to the dugout to have a seat of their own, using a healthy mix of offspeed and breaking balls — mostly his changeup (28.8%), slider (26%) and sinker (23.3%) — to strike out five batters. Gipson-Long’s debut was the first ever by a Tiger with at least five innings thrown, five strikeouts and no walks. (62 pitchers in MLB history have done it, with Seattle’s Bryce Miller doing it most recently, on May 2 of this season.)
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“That was a really good day for us, and certainly for Sawyer — what a debut,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told reporters at Comerica Park. “This is the result of a complete evolution of a pitcher.”
Gipson-Long was the second Tigers starter from Georgia to make his MLB debut against the White Sox this season, after fellow right-hander Reese Olson opened his career with five no-hit innings vs. the ChiSox in early June. Unlike that game, in which the Tigers were shut out, on Sunday, they backed their rookie arm, stringing together five hits for a three-run third inning that provided all the runs Gipson-Long, the franchise's No. 19 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, needed.
The win gave the Tigers (66-77) a weekend-series win over the White Sox in the two teams’ final meeting of 2023. The Tigers also won the season series against the White Sox with eight victories in 13 games; it’s the first season-series win for Detroit vs. the ChiSox since the Tigers took 12 of 19 games in 2018. (Detroit has also clinched season-series victories over the three other American League Central teams for the first time since 2011).
The Tigers will have Monday off before welcoming NL wild-card-contending Cincinnati Reds to Comerica Park for three games beginning Tuesday night.
Three for all
After peppering White Sox right-hander Jesse Scholtens with isolated singles through the first two innings, the Tigers finally got on the board in the third with three straight hits. Zach McKinstry and Matt Vierling each singled on a sinker, putting runners on first and third for Spencer Torkelson. He didn’t wait to strike, pulling Scholtens’ first pitch, an 86.6 mph slider, down the left-field line. As it veered into foul territory beyond the bag, it hit the stands and stopped before left fielder Andrew Benintendi could get to it; McKinstry scored, as did Vierling from first, and Torkelson wound up on second.
“It’s like any other at-bat — look for a good pitch and put a good swing on it,” Torkelson told reporters.
After a Kerry Carpenter flyout, the Tigers put runners on the corners again as Andy Ibáñez grounded to third but beat the throw after Lenyn Sosa paused with Torkelson coming to third. Rookie Andre Lipcius then picked up his second hit of the afternoon, a single to right to score Torkelson.
Welcome to the show, rook
Gipson-Long, who progressed through the Tigers’ system after coming over from Minnesota (in a 2022 trade deadline deal) by controlling the strike zone, threw his first pitch in the majors for a ball, landing his 94.2 mph four-seam fastball outside to Chicago’s Tim Anderson. He recovered quickly with two quick strikes, including a whiff on his changeup, then put Anderson away with another changeup, getting a whiff for the first out.
After getting Andrew Benintendi to ground out to second base, the 6-foot-4 righty wrapped up the inning with a whiff of Luis Robert Jr. Gipson-Long worked mostly down and away to the White Sox’s All-Star, firing a sinker for a first-pitch strike, two changeups too far outside, a slider past Robert’s bat and, finally, an 85.7 mph changeup just on the inner third of the plate that Robert swung through to end the inning.
“Sawyer pitched really well, that was awesome to see,” Torkelson told reporters.
Gipson-Long’s strong debut continued in the second, with whiffs of Eloy Jimenez and Elvis Andrus sandwiched around a popout by Yasmani Grandal to catcher Carson Kelly on the third-base side of foul territory. In the third, Gipson-Long didn’t have any strikeouts, but retired the White Sox in order again, with a lineout to center, a popout to second — both on his changeup — and a groundout by Sosa on a 92.4 mph sinker.
“He had really good stuff, which is tough when you haven’t seen him before,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol told reporters. “That’s another arm added to their stable. They’ve got something good going on over there with a bunch of young starters.”
Sox strike back
Gipson-Long’s no-hit bid finally came to an end with one out in the fourth inning. Benintendi lined a second-pitch changeup into short right field; it dropped in front of Carpenter, who tried to make a sliding catch only to have the ball skip past him and roll toward the wall. As Meadows chased it down, Benintendi continued around the bases to third.
After Gipson-Long got the second out — Robert on a flyout to Carpenter in foul territory — Jimenez pulled the White Sox within two runs with a double down the left-field line off an 87.4 mph changeup. But that was it for Chicago, as Grandal got under a slider for a flyout to Carpenter in right.
Gipson-Long worked a scoreless fifth, with an inning-ending double-play grounder to third from Colas wiping the runner who reached on Lipcius’ throwing error. But he ran into trouble to open the sixth inning, as Sosa stung a 94 mph sinker into the right-center gap for a double, and Anderson pulled an 81.2 mph down the left-field line for a single. (Lipcius, the third baseman, was able to reach the ball as it veered over the line, but was unable to make the throw to first in time.) That was it for Gipson-Long, who gave way to right-hander Will Vest.
Vest picked up the first out of the inning — a flyout to center by Benintendi — but Robert sent a soft grounder down the line that Lipcius, going to first, was unable to turn into the second out, making it a one-run game. Vest then walked Jimenez on six pitches to load the bases. But Vest escaped the jam on a ball up the middle from Grandal; McKinstry, the shortstop, ranged well to his left to get the ball behind second base and whipped it to Ibáñez, who then pivoted and fired to first, where Torkelson dug out the low throw for the third out.
“(Grandal) hit the ball hard up the middle, which is what you want in that spot,” Grifol said. “But it hits the pitcher’s glove, bounces off the mound and right to their guy.
Oh, that bullpen
Tyler Holton relieved Vest to open the seventh and pitched a perfect inning, with one strikeout, to lower his ERA to 2.20 this season. Miguel Díaz followed Holton in the eighth and was nearly as effective: three up, three down with nothing leaving the infield. And, finally, Alex Lange closed out the White Sox for the second straight game, picking up his 23rd save of the season. After allowing four runs in 2⅓ innings to the White Sox in Friday’s loss, Tigers relievers bounced back with just two runs over eight innings on Saturday and Sunday.
Dave Hogg of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers top White Sox, 3-2, on gem by Sawyer Gipson-long
