CHICAGO — Eric Haase grew up in the Detroit area watching the Tigers and White Sox battle as division rivals. He was 7 years old when they cleared the benches in Chicago in 2000. He was 9 when his current bench coach, George Lombard, hit his first homer as a Tiger here when Detroit and Chicago combined for 12 home runs in a game.
Fitting, then, that with seemingly every big swing, Haase is slugging himself into a place in Tigers lore here.
While White Sox fans in the outfield seats at Guaranteed Rate Field continue to chant less than complimentary things about Detroit, the Motown native continues to pepper them with home runs. His two-homer game Saturday powered the Tigers in front of Lucas Giolito before Detroit held on for a 4-3 win.
Giolito allowed just four homers in his first nine career starts against Detroit from 2017-20. He has surrendered five homers in two meetings with the Tigers this year, both Detroit victories. Haase became the second Tiger to post a multi-homer game against him, joining Nick Castellanos.
What Haase is doing, though, goes beyond one pitcher or one opponent. From the moment his go-ahead home run hit the center-field shrubs Friday night, Haase went on a stretch of four plate appearances that included three home runs and a walk. Two of those homers were 427-foot drives, according to Statcast.