Tigers spoil Robert Jr’s big day, beat White Sox in extras

CHICAGO — The Chicago White Sox shrugged off their historically sluggish home opener with an offensive barrage in a back-and-forth affair Saturday afternoon, but they eventually fell to the Detroit Tigers in extra innings.

Two days after the White Sox became the second team in Major League Baseball history to have zero runs, zero walks, zero extra base hits and 10-plus strikeouts on Opening Day, Luis Robert Jr. reached base in four out of his five plate appearances, on his way to a 3-4 day with two home runs and four runs batted in.

Also noteworthy, the South Siders’ star center fielder saw 29 pitches across those five plate appearances, three of which he worked to a 3-2 count.

“What you guys saw today was part of the results of all the work I put in during the offseason,” Robert Jr. said postgame. “Hopefully, you guys can see that on a consistent basis this year. I really worked on that a lot this offseason.”

All of Robert Jr’s work was for naught however, as the White Sox lost to the Tigers, 7-6, in ten innings.

Opening Day: Sox drop home opener, losing 1-0 to the Detroit Tigers

Game Recap

The Tigers got out to a hot start. Parker Meadows led off the game with a triple, followed by a Spencer Torkelson RBI single to take the lead after just four pitches. Next, Riley Greene walked and Kerry Carpenter singled to load the bases before Mark Canha added to the hit parade with a two-RBI single of his own, making the game 3-0.

Andrew Benintendi singled to lead off the game in the bottom half, then Robert Jr. connected for a two-run home run in a full count to begin closing the gap.

According to Baseball Savant, Robert Jr’s first inning home run left the bat at 111.9 miles-per-hour and traveled approximately 449 feet into the left field bleachers.

An inning later, rookie shortstop Braden Shewmake took the first pitch of his first career at-bat with the Sox 375 feet over the right field wall for a solo home run. That tied the game at 3-3.

The home run marked the first time a White Sox player homered for his first career hit with the team since Zack Collins on June 21, 2019 against the Texas Rangers, and the first South Sider to homer for his first hit on the first pitch of his first career at-bat with the White Sox since Wil Cordero on April 23, 1998, per mlb.com’s Scott Merkin.

“It was awesome. It was great. It’s kind of hard to put into words,” Shewmake said after the game. “But at the end of the day, I really wasn’t as much thinking about the home run being the first hit as I was thinking about it’s a tie game. Once it’s a tie game, it’s a 0-0 ballgame at this point and we’re going to try to win the game.”

Robert Jr hit his second home run of the ballgame in the bottom of the third, another two-run shot in a 3-2 count, and the Sox took their first lead of the game, 5-3.

“That guy right there can win MVP, that’s for dang sure,” Shewmake said. “I think everybody in here knows that too. But … I think the greatest part about it is he doesn’t go about his business that way. He’s a great teammate.”

For Robert Jr., the third inning blast marked the sixth time he’s notched a multi-home run game. The last time he did so was on June 25, 2023 against the Boston Red Sox.

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Shewmake scored on a double steal attempt in a first-and-third situation in the bottom of the fourth to make it 6-3, before the Tigers’ Canha crushed a solo shot in the top of the fifth to make it 6-4.

White Sox starter Michael Soroka departed after five innings. His final line was 5.0 innings pitched, seven hits, four earned runs and three walks.

Then a solo home run from Greene and a RBI single from catcher Carson Kelly knotted the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the seventh.

Detroit’s bullpen worked through jams in the seventh and eighth, before both bullpens retired the side in the ninth for some bonus baseball in game No. 2 of the season.

Kelly delivered a second RBI single for the Tigers with one out in the top of the tenth inning to give Detroit a one-run lead — A lead they wouldn’t squander, as Chicago went down in order in the bottom of the tenth.

“We got back in the game, took a 6-3 lead. There’s a lot of good stuff going on in that ballgame and we just came up short at the end,” said White Sox manager Pedro Grifol postgame. “But overall, these guys here battled their butts off and played a good baseball game. We just got to find ways to win.”

Up next

The Chicago White Sox (0-2) take on the Detroit Tigers (2-0) in the season opening series finale Sunday at 1:10 p.m. CST in Chicago, with Erick Fedde set to take the mound against the Tigers’ Jack Flaherty.

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