DETROIT -- The start of the White Sox fourth three-city road trip Friday night at Comerica Park didn't exactly go as planned.
In fact, the 15-5 shellacking administered by the Tigers represented the highest run total and highest hit total (18) by an opposing offense against the South Siders this season. The problem began and ended with White Sox starting pitcher Derek Holland, at least in Holland's mind.
"If anything, this is all my fault," said Holland, who fell to 4-5 and saw his ERA climb to 3.43 after a 2 1/3-inning performance. "I didn't do a good-enough job."
Holland was touched up for eight runs on eight hits over 58 pitches, striking out two and walking two. But these weren't seeing-eye singles or bloopers just out of the defense's reach.
Michael Mahtook, J.D. Martinez and John Hicks all went deep, and their home runs each surpassed 430 feet in distance. He became the second pitcher this season to yield three homers of 430-plus feet in a game and allowed six barrels in a contest for the first time in the Statcast™ era.
Of course, Holland felt good warming up for his 11th start this season.
"I thought everything was going the way I wanted it to. But the main thing is I have to beat myself up," Holland said. "I didn't do my job. Those guys put some runs on the board for me to try to hold them down, and I didn't do that at all. I had two walks, shouldn't have had those.
"I'm frustrated with the walks more than anything. It's just a frustrating game with myself. Huge props to my teammates, still trying to battle back. They never gave in. It could have been a really bad game, but those guys battled for me. Unfortunately, I didn't do my job today."
Michael Fulmer didn't receive a run of support when losing to the White Sox last Saturday. The Tigers more than made up for that oversight on Friday, although the White Sox offense continued to fight.
Following two more games in Detroit, the White Sox move on to play three at the Rays and three more in Cleveland. They will finish this trip with 38 road games played.
Having five pitchers work in the first game of the journey certainly isn't ideal, especially considering Michael Ynoa left with right quad soreness. But White Sox manager Rick Renteria looks at this Holland start as more of an anomaly than a point of concern.
"One of his truly rare outings. Happens every now and then," Renteria said. "Seemed like everything he threw up there they were able to put a good swing on and wasn't able to stop it and it's just one of those days for him."
"Sometimes you don't have it, and the main thing is you have to try to find ways to find it," Holland said. "It's just a frustrating day."