*Photo from MLive.com*
No one saw it hit the ground, or even the wall. And yet, it was still the winning hit. Eric Haase homered, Javier Baez drove in the winning run, and the Detroit Tigers rallied late to defeat the Chicago White Sox 5-4 on Friday afternoon in Detroit, winning in walk off fashion.
Baez drove a ball to the right field wall, chasing AJ Pollock back, when it looked to everyone in the Tigers dugout that he made the catch, which would've sent the game to extra innings. Austin Meadows, running on the play, touched home plate, scoring the winning run, which wasn't discovered until replay review.
Meadows said of the sequence that "It was weird. Because I hit home and I didn’t realize. I thought he was out. I didn’t know. And then I saw everybody cheer in the dugout and then A.J. came over and said, ‘Did you touch home plate?’ And I was like, ‘I think I did.’"
It was the White Sox who got on the board first, with an Eloy Jimenez first inning RBI single to put the White Sox ahead 1-0 early. In the second inning, an RBI single from Pollock and an RBI double off the bat of Luis Robert made it a 3-0 lead for Chicago. In the 6th inning, Jeimer Candelario got the Tigers on the board, cutting the deficit to 3-1 with an RBI single.
In the 8th, a single from longtime Tiger Miguel Cabrera scored both Meadows and Robbie Grossman, tying the game at 3-3 late. In the top of the 9th, a solo home run from Andrew Vaughn put the White Sox ahead 4-3. In the bottom of the 9th, it was Haase who got the party started, hitting the game tying solo home run. Then, Baez delivered the walk off hit to give the Tigers the 5-4 win.
Baez said of his at bat that "I'm going to swing hard. Sometimes I'm going to control it better than the first two at-bats, but I'm going to swing hard. I was sitting on a slider there, and I just kind of reacted to the fastball and got to it. I don't know how I did that."
It was new Tiger Eduardo Rodriguez who made his first career opening day start, and it could've gone better. Rodriguez lasted just 4 innings, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits, walking two hitters and striking out two. Drew Hutchison added two scoreless innings, followed by scoreless innings from Alex Lange and Jacob Barnes. Gregory Soto got the win despite allowing the 9th inning homer to Vaughn.
Liam Hendriks blew the save and got the loss for the White Sox, who fell to 0-1 on the season. Hendriks allowed two runs, but was on the mound for the single by Cabrera, with both of those runs being charged to Aaron Bummer. Lucas Giolito exited his start with an injury, throwing 4 shutout innings with just one hit and two walks, striking out 6 hitters. Kyle Crick, Bennett Sousa, and Kendall Graveman also pitched.
After the game, Hendriks said that "Haase put up a good battle and I left that one leaking over middle-in, and that’s the pitch he hits, especially after I threw him seven or eight straight fastballs. I’ve just got to make better pitches. I’ve got to make better pitch selection. And that’s something that needs to happen really quickly. I just didn’t get it done."
The series continues on Saturday afternoon, with Dylan Cease toeing the rubber for the White Sox, and Casey Mize taking the ball for the Tigers.
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