CHICAGO — Jeimer Candelario came into the game hitting .186 and slugging a meager .303. He hadn’t hit a home run since May 29. He had two hits in his last 20 at-bats. He was losing playing time to Harold Castro and Kody Clemens.
But all was well Friday night. He had his talisman on the mound. Good things seem to happen when he faces White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito.
Candelario hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning to tie the game and then lined a two-out RBI single in the seventh to break the tie and trigger a four-run outburst that sent the Tigers to a 7-5 win over the Southsiders.
Candelario is now 11 for 32 against Giolito, who going into the sixth inning had allowed just one hit. His tie-breaking single ended the night for Giolito but the Tigers continued to do damage against reliever Joe Kelly.
Willi Castro singled in a run and Javier Baez, who was booed lustily throughout the night and seemed to revel in it, ripped a two-run double down the left-field line. It was his second hit of the night. Four runs scored after two outs, three charged to Giolito’s ledger.
They needed all of those runs because things got a little hairy in the bottom of the eighth inning. Against relievers Jason Foley and Tyler Alexander, the White Sox reeled off four straight two-out singles and cut the lead to 7-5.
With two on, Chicago manager Tony La Russa summoned right-handed hitting Andrew Vaughn to pinch-hit. Alexander struck him out on three pitches.
Michael Fulmer closed it out, but not without drama. He hit Tim Anderson with one out and gave up a single to AJ Pollock. But he struck out Luis Robert and got Jose Abreu to fly to righ
It was the Tigers’ sixth straight win and it marked, potentially, a turnaround performance by lefty starter Tarik Skubal. He might not think of it as a breakthrough, but he certainly seemed to get his train back on the tracks.
He’d yielded 18 runs in 18 1/3 innings over his previous four starts and he got jumped early in this one.
Luis Robert, the third hitter of the game, hit a first-pitch, pedestrian 93-mph four-seam fastball 449 feet into the seats in left field, a two-run shot.
Abreu followed with a double to the wall in left-center.
Whether that was a “screw-it” moment or not, Skubal started attacking hitters, fiercely and effectively. His fastball ticked up, hitting 96 and 97 mph. His slider was firm (90 mph) and he was landing off-speed pitches – change-ups and the knuckle curve.
Besides an opposite-field double by Josh Harrison on an 0-2 emergency swing and two infield hits that could easily have been scored as errors, Skubal allowed no more damage through six innings, striking out seven earning a quality start and leaving with the score tied at 2.
His two subsequent punch-outs of Abreu were impressive. He won an eight-pitch battle in the third. With the count full, Skubal threw him two 97-mph sinkers then got him to swing and miss at a 90-mph slider.
He got him again in the sixth, this time punching him out with back-to-back change-ups.
Skubal got 15 swings and misses on 48 swings — five each with his slider and change-up. He also got 13 called strikes, five with his two-seamer which he was able to locate on the inner part of the zone against the all-right-handed White Sox lineup.
