CHICAGO -- Spencer Torkelson didn’t move far from home plate as he watched the ball sail Monday night in the Tigers' 2-1 victory over the White Sox.
With one out and the game tied at 1-1 in the top of the ninth, Torkelson crushed a 1-0 four-seamer over the heart of the plate from White Sox reliever Brandon Eisert. The only problem? Torkelson pulled it down the left-field line. It was far from a no-doubt homer, since it could easily hook in front the left-field foul pole and keep the game knotted up.
Torkelson hunched over and leaned to his right while the ball flew, seemingly willing it to stay fair.
“I was praying,” he said.
After a few seconds of tension, it doinked off the pole, giving Torkelson his 26th home run and giving the Tigers the lead.
The skies above Rate Field opened and dropped a storm over the ballpark a few moments later, but once play resumed after a 63-minute delay, Torkelson’s blast was enough to lead Detroit to victory.
“I had a great spot, and I knew he crushed it,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “It was a matter of whether or not it was going to hit the pole or not. He hit it just far enough and just fair enough.”
Outside of that go-ahead homer and three straight hits to start the scoring in the second, the Tigers’ bats were mostly quiet. They loaded the bases in the fourth but couldn’t bring in an insurance run. Between the last out of the fourth inning and Torkelson’s home run, they had just one baserunner.
But Chris Paddack gave Detroit 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball. Tyler Holton, Kyle Finnegan and Will Vest then combined for 3 1/3 scoreless to seal the victory.
“A game like that, where it's a good pitching matchup, not a lot of hits on the ballfield,” Paddack said. “The guys coming in and shutting the door there -- especially after the rain delay -- those are huge zeros.”
After a shaky second start with the Tigers, Paddack bounced back Monday. He allowed only a pair of singles through the first four innings, and neither baserunner reached scoring position.
The White Sox lineup looks a bit different than the one Paddack faced twice in the first month of the season with the Twins -- though it’s been a much-improved one recently as well. From the start of the second half through Sunday, Chicago owned the fourth-highest wRC+ (121) and OPS (.803) in baseball.
One of those second-half contributors has been White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery, who entered Monday with a 130 wRC+ and an .853 OPS since debuting July 4. His hot streak continued, blasting a home run off Paddack -- his 10th since the All-Star break -- to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth.
But that was all the offense the White Sox could muster against the Tigers’ staff, as they had only two more baserunners the rest of the night.
The lights-out pitching set the stage for Torkelson’s heroics.
“I feel like I haven't had one of those where I could watch it, see it hit the pole,” Torkelson said of his homer. “Normally, I'm watching and it just goes barely foul and it really hurts. But cool to see it fair.”
Given Detroit’s last month of baseball, pulling out a hard-fought win had to feel good. Since reaching 25 games above .500 (59-34) and holding a 14-game lead in the American League Central on July 8, the Tigers have gone 10-17. That featured a 1-12 stretch and two six-game losing streaks.
Meanwhile, the Guardians, who were six games under .500, 15 1/2 games back and in fourth place on July 8, have since gone 19-8 to make it a race again.
Detroit has won three of its last four games and nine of 14, so the team certainly has been trending up over the last couple of weeks. Still, the win at least gives the Tigers (69-51) more breathing room atop the AL Central with a 6 1/2-game lead over Cleveland (61-56).
“I think it speaks a lot to we're staying present, and we're not really worried about the stretch we had,” Torkelson said of Detroit’s better recent run. “We feel like that was a little inevitable in a long season, to kind of go through a tough stretch.
“Really happy with the way we persevered and got through that, and definitely see light at the end of the tunnel of, like, 'Hey, we're a really good team.' We could win, and we can find different ways to win.”