DETROIT -- Troy Melton has earned his reputation as a cool customer under pressure, rarely showing emotion, rarely cracking in big situations. Eventually, however, the pressure catches up.
The White Sox taxed Melton for 87 pitches over 4 1/3 innings on Saturday. Just 12 of those came with the bases empty. The White Sox churned out leadoff hits in every inning Melton pitched, including leadoff doubles in the first, third and fifth.
Between nine hits and one walk, it’s arguably impressive that Melton emerged with just three runs allowed, helped in part by the Tigers’ first 1-5-4 double play in 56 years (and the first in the Majors since 2023).
“That created a ton of stress for him to pitch out of,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said after Detroit’s 4-3 loss Saturday at Comerica Park. “And when you looked up mid-game, we were down by one, then we homer and [later we] tie it. Yet it felt like we were chasing something the whole game.”
But while the pressure didn’t show in Melton’s face, it showed in his exit with one out in the fifth inning. It showed in the extended outing for lefty reliever Drew Sommers, whose nine batters were three more than he’d faced in any other outing in his brief big league career. It showed in Andrew Benintendi’s go-ahead two-out RBI single in the seventh inning on Sommers’ 27th and final pitch.
“Maybe one or two mislocated pitches out of his entire day, and Benintendi was able to fight one off into the outfield,” Hinch said. “So Drew Sommers was incredible today.”
By applying constant pressure, the White Sox beat the Tigers at their own game. In turn, Chicago (64-58) not only has won the first two games of this three-game clash with the American League Central lead in the balance, they’ve beaten arguably the Tigers’ two nastiest young starters, combining for nine runs on 18 hits in eight innings against Melton and Jackson Jobe. Melton wasn’t crushed so much as he was repeatedly nicked, his three runs coming on a pair of two-out hits.
“I didn't get ahead in counts very well at all,” Melton said. “Below 50% first-pitch strikes; obviously, that's not a good recipe for success. They took advantage of it. I don't think my cutter was particularly sharp today; I think I threw it more in zone but not as quality of strikes as I would like. Just not my best.”
Now comes the bigger-picture pressure for the Tigers (60-63), who will send Drew Anderson to the mound on Sunday trying to avoid a series sweep. And with a chance at the division lead and a .500 record now on hold, they’ll pick themselves up again.
They’ve been doing it all summer. Every time the Tigers’ season was declared over, they’ve fought back, from 16 games under .500 at the end of May to a 2-5 homestand and 14 games under near the end of June to the series loss to the Orioles that set up the Tigers’ Trade Deadline deals three weeks ago. That was the Tigers’ first back-to-back losses until the past two days.
“You watch this team play. Have you ever seen them deflated? Not really, right? I mean, that’s kind of what we’re about,” Hinch said. “Yeah, this is a missed opportunity when it comes to this overall series. We have a chance to salvage a game tomorrow, and we’re going to see them four more times [in Chicago Sept. 17-20].
“I’ve just never seen this team out, and I love that about this group. We’re going to need to dig a little bit deeper. We keep getting pretty close to that .500 line. We’re still right in the thick of everything, and our team knows that, because we’ve been clawing at this deficit for the better part of the season. So the threat of deflation should be zero.”
They’re still in the center of the race for the final AL Wild Card spot with Minnesota, Texas and Toronto.
“Really, I don't think it affects anything,” Melton said. “We would've liked to win these games, obviously, and put ourselves in a position to be leading the division. But the job is still the same. We need to win as many games as we can. We have a lot of baseball to play, and a lot of important baseball. We just have to keep winning games and stacking them up.”