CHICAGO — A comeback from the Detroit Tigers sent the Chicago White Sox to their 100th loss in their 131st game, keeping them on pace for the worst record in modern baseball history.
The White Sox are on pace for 123 losses in 162 games, three more than the 1962 New York Mets' 120 in 160 games.
They're that bad.
On Sunday, the Tigers beat the White Sox, 9-4, in the third of four games in the series at Guaranteed Rate Field. Scoring three runs in the fifth inning flipped the momentum and propelled the Tigers to their third win in a row.
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The Tigers (65-66) — winners in 10 of their last 13 games — can reach .500 for the first time since June 5 with a win in Monday's series finale.
"It's important," manager A.J. Hinch said. "It's the next goal. Once you accomplish that, if we can do that, then we will reset the goals. That's not what we want to be, and the season is not over, if and when we can get to that mark, but I think it's important that we keep everything in perspective. Everybody is chipping away at doing their part because we do want to have a winning team. That matters to this group."
The first four batters reached safely in the fifth inning, all against right-hander Jonathan Cannon. The first three batters — Kerry Carpenter, Colt Keith, Jace Jung — collected singles, with Jung tying the game, 3-3, with a two-strike single on a high-velocity fastball.
Spencer Torkelson loaded the bases with a six-pitch walk.
Loading the bases chased Cannon from his start, replaced by left-handed reliever Fraser Ellard. Pinch-hitter Andy Ibáñez, a right-handed hitter, grounded into a force out, which scored Keith from third base for a 4-3 advantage.
The Tigers never looked back.
"That'd be a big goal for us to achieve," Keith said of a .500 record. "I've been saying for a while that this team has a lot of potential, we just got to be more consistent. You see us being more consistent the last couple of weeks, playing good baseball. We just got to keep it going. If we do that, we'll be above .500 to end the year."
Trey Sweeney — a left-handed hitter who typically struggles in matchups with lefty pitchers — didn't miss Ellard's poorly located middle-middle cutter, redirecting the ball into center field for an RBI single to make it 5-3 in the fifth.
It was Sweeney's first plate appearance against a lefty in his six-game MLB career.
"The velo doesn't bother Sweeney," Hinch said, "so with the flat swing, and he's going to have pretty good discipline. I took my shot with Andy, you want to leave Sweeney there because there's still a ton of game left, and I didn't want to use multiple players in having to put (Ryan) Kreidler at shortstop because I'd already hit for McKinstry. At shortstop, he was our coverage in the moment."
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Two-out blast
The Tigers extended their lead to 7-3 in the seventh.
Right-handed reliever Enyel De Los Santos struck out the first two batters in Keith and Jung, but Torkelson reached safely on an infield single that wasn't fielded cleanly by the third baseman.
Ibáñez made the White Sox pay for Vargas' mistake, cranking a down-and-in slider from De Los Santos for a two-run home run to left field. He hit the slider in a two-strike count with two outs.
It was Ibáñez's first homer against a right-handed pitcher in the 2024 season.
In the eighth, Keith pushed the lead to 9-4 with a two-run double to the right-field corner off a middle-middle sinker from right-handed reliever Touki Toussaint.
Keith finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs, one walk and one strikeout. Carpenter, Jung and Sweeney produced the other multi-hit performances in a 14-hit effort for the Tigers. who also drew five walks.
"I'm feeling good," Keith said. "I made a few adjustments in the last couple of weeks that's allowed me to really free up, loosen up and be able to pull some balls and also go the other way. Hopefully, I can keep it going."
On the mound
Right-handed reliever Beau Brieske, who hasn't been a traditional starter since 2022, started as an opener for the Tigers, but the White Sox scored two runs against him in the first inning.
Brieske walked the leadoff hitter on five pitches.
The White Sox grabbed a 2-0 lead on back-to-back doubles from Andrew Benintendi and Andrew Vaughn. Brieske completed the first inning, but he was replaced for the second inning by left-hander Bryan Sammons, who covered 4⅓ innings on 50 pitches.
In the third, Vaughn blasted a middle-middle cutter from Sammons for a solo home run to left-center. The homer from Vaughn put the White Sox ahead, 3-1.
Sammons allowed one run on three hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He has a 3.62 ERA in six appearances as a long reliever for the Tigers.
The White Sox didn't score again until the seventh inning with Corey Julks' sacrifice fly off right-handed reliever Will Vest made it 7-4. Right-handed reliever Jason Foley tossed a scoreless ninth inning in his second outing in three days.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers rally for 9-4 win, hand 100th loss to Chicago White Sox
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