White Sox encouraged by strong defense, 'pen despite snapping win streak

DETROIT -- Martín Pérez didn’t have his best stuff on Saturday night, and neither did the White Sox. And while sometimes there’s still enough good to scrape by on, that was not the case at Comerica Park, where Chicago was stumped by a Cy Young contender during a 6-0 loss to the Tigers.

The defeat ended the club’s season-high win streak at six games. While its recent stretch of success didn’t make the loss any less disappointing, a couple of bright spots -- particularly on defense and in the ’pen -- made the sting a bit more palatable.

Pérez was just one pitch into his outing when leadoff batter Jahmai Jones caught a cutter low and outside and lifted it into the left-field bullpen to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

After a one-out single put a man on first, Pérez tried to barehand Spencer Torkelson’s chopper on the next play. He lost his grip, scooped it with his glove but then dropped it. By the time he grabbed it with his throwing hand again, Torkelson was already at first. Pérez was charged with the error.

He got out of the inning unscathed outside of the solo homer, but trouble was brewing. Pérez was 19 pitches deep into his outing, and Chicago was facing Detroit ace Tarik Skubal on the other side.

Still, Pérez settled in to keep the Tigers scoreless over the next two frames. He faced just one over the limit as Detroit swung under pitch after pitch, the barrage of popups giving the veteran six flyouts across his first three innings. He also benefitted from great defense in left field from Brooks Baldwin, whose diving grab stole a hit from Wenceel Pérez and secured the second out of the third.

Cracks began to show in the fourth, with Chicago still hitless against Skubal. Dominic Fletcher’s sprinting snatch of a potential extra-bases knock into the right-center gap was the first out, but Pérez’s luck ran out soon after, when Baldwin’s second attempt at a diving catch resulted in the ball scooting past him for a double, which allowed a run to score. A sacrifice fly followed to give Detroit a 3-0 advantage, and a three-run homer capped the five-run frame and ultimately ended Pérez’s night after four innings, six runs and three walks.

“I have to be better with my location next time,” said Pérez, who suffered his career-high-tying fourth consecutive loss. “I know I've been doing good, but that happens. Sometimes you're not going to feel 100%, or you're not going to hit your spots, and that happened to me, but that's OK.

“I'm just going to turn the page and be ready for my next [start].”

Still, Chicago wasn’t ready to roll over. After Bryan Ramos knocked a double in the top of the fifth to break up Skubal’s no-hitter, the bullpen -- yes, that same overtaxed bullpen that’s logged 16 games in 16 days -- stepped up to shut down the Tigers completely.

Wikelman González entered in relief of Pérez and caught Torkelson looking on a filthy slurve, then drew a swinging K from Riley Greene using the same offering. Four pitches later and González had completed his 1-2-3 fifth, effectively stalling Detroit’s offense with a popout. He came back out for the sixth and fanned two more.

Steven Wilson and Dan Altavilla then added a scoreless inning and two strikeouts apiece, while Michael A. Taylor had a sliding catch on his backside to rob Wenceel Pérez again in the seventh.

“They're really tired, like probably every bullpen is at this point, but they did an outstanding job,” manager Will Venable said. “That might be the best outing we've seen from Wikelman, and we've seen some good ones from him. Steven Wilson was great. Dan was great. So, really nice job by all those guys.”

Everyone knew the White Sox win streak wouldn’t last forever, but for every player who lived that six-game stretch, anything felt possible. And because of that, Chicago is happy to chalk up Saturday to a one-off and move on.

“It is what it is,” Ramos said. “... We didn’t get that many chances.

“Tonight was like, you’ve got to flush it and go to win tomorrow.”