White Sox 15, Tigers 2: Ureña rocked for 8 runs

The Chicago White Sox scored early and often, and Dylan Cease held the home team to a pair of runs, dealing the Tigers a 13-2 defeat before Detroit’s biggest crowd to see a live sporting event in the past 15 months at Comerica Park.

The Tigers sent Jose Urena to the mound against Chicago’s Dylan Cease, who has shut them out twice this season in dominant fashion. With a “bullpen day” likely on tap for Sunday, the Tigers would like to get some innings out of their starter in this game.

Tim Anderson hit the first pitch of the game off the glove of a diving Harold Castro at third base, into shallow left field for a double. Detroit started Harold at the hot corner, Isaac Paredes at shortstop, and Willi Castro at second base. Brian Goodwin, who was recently recalled from Triple-A, laced a double into the corner in right field scoring Anderson and the White Sox led, 1- 0. Urena then hit Yasmani Grandal on the elbow to put runners on first and second, still no outs.

Jose Abreu hit a sharp grounder to shortstop, which was bobbled by Paredes for an error, loading the bases with no outs. Yermin Mercedes beat the shift with a knock to right field, scoring two more runs. 3- 0 White Sox. A passed ball off the glove of Eric Haase moved the runners to second and third. Urena struck out Adam Eaton, and got Jake Lamb and Leury Garcia to ground out to Jonathan Schoop at first base, holding the score at 3-0.

Robbie Grossman drew a leadoff walk for the Tigers in the bottom half of the first, and Harold Castro drilled a home run to right field, his first round tripper of the season, to make it 3-2. Cease retired the next three Tigers to end the inning, but his shutout magic act against Detroit was over.

Urena walked Danny Mendick, the no 9 hitter, to lead off the second inning. Anderson lined a single to right, and Goodwin launched a three run homer into the right field seats to put Chicago up 6- 2. Urena walked Grandal, got Abreu to pop out to second base, and Mercedes flew out to Akil Baddoo in center field. A walk to Eaton put two on with two outs, and Urena’s day was done. Enter Daniel Norris to pitch for Detroit.

Urena’s final line: 1.2 IP/ 8 R/ 7 ER/ 5 H/ 3 BB/ 1 K/ 1 HR/ 58 pitches, 32 strikes.

Norris walked Lamb to load the bases, and Garcia hit a bloop single to shallow right field to score two more runs, both charged to Urena. Another walk to Mendick re-loaded the bases for the top of the order. Anderson flew out to center field to end the carnage with Chicago leading 8- 2.

After Cease retired the Tigers in order in the second, Norris retired the Sox, giving up a single but erasing that on a double play ball to end the inning.

Beau Burrows relieved Norris in the fourth inning for the Tigers. He retired the side in order in the fourth, but then the hit parade resumed in the fifth frame. A walk, a double, and a two run single by Anderson made it 10- 2 for the White Sox. After another walk to load the bases, Burrows notched a pair of strikeouts. Then things got really weird.

Burrows hadn’t looked right, taking long pauses between pitches. Turns out he was sick, and rather colorfully expressed the mood of both team and fanbase in hurling all over the mound. Perhaps a bit of heatstroke, or just an illness exacerbated by the heat. In any case, he was removed for Alex Lange.

Lange promptly gave up a two run single to Mercedes and then reloaded the bags with a walk. Another run scored on a passed ball by Haase, his second of the game. That made it 13- 2 for Chicago.

Cease would keep the Tigers off the board through the fifth inning before giving way to the bullpen.

Cease’s final line: 5 IP/ 2 R/ 2 ER/ 4 H/ 7 K/ 1 BB/ 1 HR/ 82 pitches, 52 strikes.

After Lange retired the Sox in order in the sixth, Ryan Burr worked around a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning to retire the Tigers. Jason Foley took the mound for Detroit in the seventh, and surrendered a leadoff double, but then retired the next three Sox. Burr set the Tigers down in order in the seventh inning. Still 13- 2, with no sign of life in the Tigers’ lineup.

Jake Rogers- yeah, the rookie catcher- came on to pitch for Detroit in the eighth inning. He gave up an infield single, a walk, and a double to score one run, leaving runners on second and third. A second run came home on a ground out, and he got the next two batters on a foul pop to third and a fly out to right field. 15- 2 Chicago.

Harold Castro pitched for the Tigers to start the ninth inning while Rogers swapped positions, moving to third base. Tossing pitches that ranged from 51 to 80 miles per hour, Castro got a pair of fly balls and a ground out to first, to retire the Sox 1-2-3.

This was the first time since 1918 that the Tigers used two position players to pitch in the same game, when Ty Cobb and Bobby Veach took the mound for Detroit.

Matt Foster worked the final two innings for the pale hose to finish the job for Chicago.

The loss drops the Tigers to 26- 38 for the season, 14 games behind the division leading White Sox. The two teams will face off for the third and final game of the series at Comerica park on Sunday at 1:10 PM, ET. The Tigers were planning on a bullpen game for Sunday to give the starters an extra day of rest. We’ll have to see if they reconsider and start Matthew Boyd on regular rest instead.