CHICAGO – The Detroit Tigers are averaging 3.76 runs per game in the 2026 season, including just 2.96 runs in May with one game remaining before the end of the month.
The offense has been putrid.
Nothing changed in the 7-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Saturday, May 30, in the second of three games in the series at Rate Field. The White Sox scored four runs off left-hander Framber Valdez, with two apiece in the first and seventh innings.
The Tigers have a 22-37 record, remaining in last place in the American League and falling to 12 games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.
They’ve dropped 20 of their past 24 games.
Meanwhile, the White Sox are 31-27.
On the mound
The White Sox took a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Valdez struggled to throw strikes.
The damage could’ve been worse than two runs, as a leadoff double from Chase Meidroth and back-to-back walks to Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery loaded the bases with no outs.
A wild pitch made it a 1-0 lead for the White Sox, then Edgar Quero’s sacrifice fly extended the lead to 2-0. To end the inning, Valdez struck out Andrew Benintendi on three pitches, including sliders for the final two strikes.
After that, Valdez settled in.
But he stumbled again in the seventh inning.
It started with Quero, who pulled Valdez’s down-and-in curveball for a solo home run and a 3-1 lead. After a Benintendi double, a two-out RBI single from Rikuu Nishida on an up-and-in sinker from Valdez pushed the lead to 4-1.
That ended Valdez’s start.
Right-handed reliever Beau Brieske – appearing in his first game since returning from a groin strain suffered in spring training – surrendered two home runs to left-handed hitters in the eighth inning, making it 7-1 White Sox.
The first home run: Montgomery turned on a middle-in fastball for a solo homer. The second: Benintendi pulled a middle-in sinker for a two-run homer.
Valdez allowed four runs on six hits and two walks with four strikeouts across 6⅔ innings, throwing 89 pitches.
The 32-year-old hasn’t been worth the three-year, $115 million contract that the Tigers guaranteed him in free agency. He owns a 4.39 ERA in 12 starts.
At the plate
The fourth, fifth and sixth innings defined the Tigers.
In all three innings, the Tigers put runners on first and second base, and in all three innings, the Tigers failed to score – with key players responsible for coming up empty.
In the fourth, Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson singled, only for Jahmai Jones – a right-handed hitter whose role is to crush left-handed pitchers – to bounce into an inning-ending double play, letting left-hander Anthony Kay off the hook.
Jones is hitting .157 with a .495 OPS in 40 games, including a .190 batting average across 64 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers. His time with the Tigers could be running out.
In the fifth, Hao-Yu Lee singled and Zack Short walked, but once again, Kay escaped. Kevin McGonigle grounded into a force out and Dillon Dingler grounded out.
The sixth inning was the biggest missed opportunity.
That’s when Matt Vierling singled and Greene reached safely on a fielding error. Still, the Tigers couldn’t take advantage of the mistake from right fielder Randal Grichuk.
The White Sox replaced Kay with right-handed reliever Grant Taylor, who stranded the runners with three outs in a row: Torkelson struck out swinging on three pitches, pinch-hitter Colt Keith flew out and Wenceel Pérez grounded out.
The Tigers scored their lone run in the third inning, when Pérez hit Kay’s elevated two-strike fastball for a solo home run. He has three homers in his past five games.
McGonigle finished 1-for-4 with one strikeout. He is hitting .077 (1-for-13) with zero walks and five strikeouts across his past three games, and he’s hitting .232 through 26 games in May.
The Tigers went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Next up
The Tigers and White Sox meet again Sunday (2:10 p.m., Detroit SportsNet) in the finale of the three-game series. The pitching matchup is slated to be right-hander Keider Montero for the Tigers and right-hander Sean Burke for the White Sox.
It’s the final game of May.
The Tigers have a 6-21 record in the month, with a minus-47 run differential. Before the downfall, the Tigers had a 16-16 record in March and April.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers fall apart in clutch moments in loss to Chicago White Sox
Reporting by Evan Petzold, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
