CHICAGO — Rookie Beau Brieske took a no-hitter into the sixth inning Thursday night. Javier Báez, in his first game back in the city of Chicago since the Cubs traded him last year, homered off right-hander Dylan Cease and the Tigers held on to beat the White Sox 2-1 and extended their winning streak to five games.
A double by Luis Robert off closer Gregory Soto in the ninth cut the lead but Soto struck out Jose Abreu and got out of the inning for his 17th save.
It was the first time the Tigers beat Cease. He was 10-0 with a 1.91 ERA in his previous 11 starts against them.
But here's all you need to know about Brieske’s brilliance on this night.
With the tying run at third base and two outs in the sixth inning, Brieske fell behind right-handed hitting AJ Pollock 3-1. Normally, right-handed pitchers won’t throw changeups to right-handed hitters. The typical fading action on the pitch tends to run into the happy zone of most right-handers, not away like it does against lefties.
Brieske, though, in just his 14th career start, threw a changeup for strike two and then came back with another changeup – back-to-back changeups to a good right-handed hitter – and got a soft liner to shortstop to end the inning.
And that was after Brieske lost his no-hit bid to start that inning. He ended up shutting the potent White Sox out for 6.1 innings, allowing just two singles.
Báez's homer came in the fourth inning. Cease left a slider down but over the plate and Báez buggy-whipped a slicing drive into the seats in left. For Báez, who got a mixture of boos and cheers when he was introduced, it was his eighth home run of the season.
The Tigers tacked on a run in the ninth. Spencer Torkelson ripped a two-out, pinch-hit single to left off lefty reliever Tanner Banks, scoring Eric Haase from second. Haase, also pinch-hitting, opened the inning with a single.
It was clear Brieske had his good stuff right from the start. His four-seam fastball was lively, and he was commanding his two-seamer and slider against the five right-handed hitters White Sox manager Tony La Russa stacked at the top of his batting order.
Brieske was throwing his four-seamer up in the zone at 95 mph. He was cutting his two-seamer in on the hands of those right-handed hitters. Then he’d work his slider to the outside part of the plate.
He struck out Pollock and Luis Robert to end the first, then struck out the always dangerous Jose Abreu to start the second.
Through five innings, the only blemish was a one-out walk to former Tiger Josh Harrison in the third. Eloy Jimenez was the only hitter to make loud contact against him. He hit a shot, 107 mph off the bat, right at center fielder Riley Greene in the second. He hit another one on the screws leading off the fifth that third baseman Jeimer Candelario caught on a dive.
Second baseman Jonathan Schoop took a base hit from Tim Anderson with a well-timed leap to end the third inning.
Brieske entered the sixth inning at 74 pitches and without a hit on his ledger.
Harrison ended the intrigue in two pitches, lashing a 1-0 changeup on a line into left field.
The Tigers then executed one of their best video challenges of the season. After Harrison was bunted to second base, Anderson hit a hard ground ball to Baez at short. He babied his throw to first. Rookie Kody Clemens, who hasn’t played a lot at that position, made the scoop, but there was a lot of ball showing out of his glove and Anderson was called safe.
That would have put two on and one out but the Tigers challenged and the call was overturned. Harrison was on second with two outs.
Brieske then ended the inning with his back-to-back changeups to Pollock.
He would only face two hitters in the seventh, leaving after giving up a one-single to Abreu. Brieske’s final line – 6.1 innings, two hits, no runs, four strikeouts and a walk. Impressive.
The seventh inning ended bizarrely. Abreu got himself hung up between first and second on a ball that catcher Tucker Barnhart blocked in the dirt. Barnhart, seeing Abreu was frozen, ran right at him until Abreu just surrendered – putout two-unassisted.
Alex Lange finished the seventh. Andrew Chafin protected the one-run lead with a clean eighth.
