Detroit Tigers' offense blasts off in 11-2 win over Chicago White Sox
After scoring six runs in their previous six games, the Detroit Tigers wasted little time Sunday getting on the board. They scored five runs in the first inning and four more in the second against the Chicago White Sox to take a commanding lead.
The Tigers rode the early runs to an 11-2 win over the White Sox — the worst team in baseball — in the finale of the three-game series at Comerica Park, winning their first series since June 3-5 (against the Texas Rangers).
The victory snapped a four-series losing streak.
Right-hander Reese Olson shut down the White Sox while receiving run support from the Tigers, virtually for the first time all season — the Tigers scored nine runs with him in the game Sunday after averaging 1.5 with him on the mound in 14 previous starts. The 24-year-old made it count, allowing two runs on four hits with zero walks and three strikeouts across 6⅓ innings and throwing 97 pitches to pick up his second victory this year.
It was Olson's second solid outing in a row after a stretch of three bad starts.
Olson has a 3.35 ERA in 15 starts.
The Tigers (36-41) have scored at least 10 runs in seven of their 77 games this season — 9.1% of the schedule so far— including three times in the past 13 games.
On Sunday, the Tigers annihilated White Sox right-hander Jonathan Cannon, a 23-year-old making the seventh appearance of his MLB career.
Leadoff hitter Matt Vierling got the attack started by smoking a second-pitch middle-middle sinker for a triple to the gap in right-center field. Colt Keith, who has been working out of the two-hole recently, then clobbered an elevated changeup for a two-run home run to left-center field for a 2-0 lead.
Keith has four home runs in 68 games.
Mark Canha reached safely on a fielding error, Wenceel Pérez ripped a ground-rule double and then Canha scored on Gio Urshela's groundout for a 3-0 advantage. After that, Akil Baddoo turned on Cannon's up-and-in fastball for a two-run home run to right-center field to increase the lead to 5-0.
Reese Olson rolls
Olson dominated the White Sox with his slider.
He threw sinkers in and sliders away to right-handed hitters, while using an even mix of fastballs, sliders and changeups to left-handed hitters.
Olson racked up two of his three strikeouts for the second and third outs in the first inning, taking down Andrew Benintendi (swinging, 94.8 mph fastball) and Eloy Jiménez (swinging, 85.6 mph slider). He also struck out Andrew Vaughn (swinging, 78.5 mph curveball) for the first out in the fifth.
Two runs were charged to Olson's tab in the seventh inning, but those runners — Jiménez (single) and Gavin Sheets (double) — scored on Nicky Lopez's two-run single off right-handed reliever Will Vest, who replaced Olson with two on and one out.
Olson generated 13 whiffs on 44 swings — a 29.5% whiff rate — with 10 sliders, one sinker, one fastball and one curveball. He averaged 23.3% changeups in his first 14 starts, but against the White Sox, he threw just 12.4% changeups, and as a result of fewer changeups, he threw more sliders.
He posted a 1.92 ERA in his first 10 starts, a 10.43 ERA in his next three starts (against the Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals) and then a 1.46 ERA in his two most recent starts (against the Atlanta Braves and White Sox).
Olson seems to be back on track.
Riley Greene rakes
The Tigers scored their sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth runs before making their fourth out of the game.
The first three batters in the second inning — Jake Rogers, Vierling and Keith — produced singles to take a 6-0 lead and chase Cannon before he could record the first out in the inning.
The White Sox replaced Cannon with left-handed reliever Jared Shuster for a matchup with Greene. On the third pitch, the left-handed hitting Greene drove a middle-middle fastball the opposite way for a three-run home run to left-center field.
Greene's homer put the Tigers ahead, 9-0.
He has 15 home runs in 76 games this season.
The Tigers didn't score again until taking a 10-2 lead in the seventh inning, thanks to Zach McKinstry's solo home run off right-handed reliever Chad Kuhl. An RBI double from Pérez extended the Tigers' lead to 11-2 in the eighth inning.
Keith finished 4-for-5 — his third four-hit game of the season — with three RBIs; Greene finished 2-for-4 with one walk and three RBIs.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Colt Keith just misses cycle as Detroit Tigers beat White Sox, 11-2
