DETROIT -- It didn¡¯t take long for White Sox right-hander Davis Martin to realize Saturday¡¯s mound effort at Comerica Park was one of those starts to be thrown away among the 32 or 33 he hopes to make this season.
So Martin changed his focus to give the White Sox some length in what resulted as a 7-2 loss to the Tigers.
¡°Yeah, absolutely. The way yesterday went, that was the first thing on my mind,¡± Martin said. ¡°Giving up seven runs, it¡¯s not going to get much better. Might as well be able to help the bullpen the best I could. It was also nice to settle into a little bit of a groove in those later innings.¡±
After Jonathan Cannon needed 88 pitches to cover 3 2/3 innings in Friday¡¯s setback, Martin yielded those seven runs in the first three innings. He tacked on two scoreless frames, before being replaced by Fraser Ellard, and made some in-game adjustments to find that groove.
Detroit jumped on Martin¡¯s offspeed offerings early in the count early on, after Martin threw 31 changes during his season debut against the Angels, according to Statcast. The White Sox claimed a 1-0 lead in the first, but in the bottom half, Justyn-Henry Malloy doubled and Kerry Carpenter flied out deep to center on first-pitch Martin offerings, Riley Greene plated Malloy with a single, and Spencer Torkelson delivered a first-pitch double off a slider to set up the Tigers¡¯ second run.
Carpenter connected for a first-pitch two-run homer in the second off a Martin curve.
¡°You saw they were jumping on offspeed early and often,¡± Martin said. ¡°As we went on, we started switching it to more of a fastball heavy approach, moving the sinker around, following it up with four seams, doubling it up with four seams. So just seeing that earlier, the better. Instead of doing that in the third and fourth innings, doing that in the first two or so. Just reading swings, reading those tendencies early in the game is another part of development.¡±
¡°We switched the plan, and used their aggressiveness to our advantage,¡± said catcher Korey Lee of Martin. ¡°Davis did a great job of getting out there, eating innings that he can. Still fought his ass off out there. He threw a great game.¡±
Saturday¡¯s loss marked a fourth straight for the White Sox, with all of them coming against American League Central opponents and in the month of April. They also have dropped all three series played in 2025, and their pitchers have given up 28 runs over the past four games, yielding five in the first four games.
Their overall brand of baseball had been crisper, smoother, even without the wins. That point changed a bit on Saturday.
Brooks Baldwin, who has been one of the top offensive performers for the White Sox in 2025, was picked off first base by catcher Jake Rogers to end the fourth after Baldwin singled to send Andrew Vaughn to second. Baldwin also threw through to home plate on Malloy¡¯s sacrifice fly to right in the third, allowing Rogers and Trey Sweeney to move up an extra base.
In that same three-run third inning, Sweeney reached on a slowly hit fielder¡¯s choice to first with the bases loaded when Vaughn¡¯s throw home to Lee found Lee standing slightly in front of the plate and allowed Colt Keith to score. Lee was motioning from in front of the plate for Vaughn to go to first.
¡°I thought it was just a perfectly executed soft-hit baseball,¡± Lee said. ¡°My read on it was obviously different from Vaughnie. We talked about it. My thought is getting an out in that situation, trying to stack up as many outs as we can and they took advantage of it, they were running hard and just miscommunication. Nothing to be really too worried about.¡±
¡°For that play, it was OK, [but] you probably want him to hang tight,¡± said White Sox manager Will Venable. ¡°He came out because he was trying to do everything he could to get Vaughn to take the out at first. Just kind of a tough play we weren¡¯t able to execute.¡±
Lee matched a career-high with three hits, Andrew Benintendi took away extra bases with a leaping catch at the left-field wall on Rogers in the first and three relievers combined for three scoreless innings for those looking for Saturday positives. But it was a rough day from the outset for the White Sox.
"Tomorrow's a new day,¡± Venable said. ¡°We get to salvage the series and go out and play a good game and that's where our focus will be."