Tigers tumble to White Sox, secure first losing season since 2023

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Sep 19, 2026

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO – Try as they might, the Detroit Tigers could not avoid their first losing season since 2023.

The Chicago White Sox, with their 3-1 win Saturday, slapped loss No. 82 on them at Rate Field.

And with the loss, the Tigers’ tragic number in the Central Division is down to one with the White Sox, who moved back into a first-place tie with the Cleveland Guardians. The Guardians were scheduled to play the Athletics later Saturday night.

The pivotal moment in this one came in the top of the sixth inning.

The Tigers were down 2-1 but they loaded the bases with two outs. White Sox righty starter Sean Burke was approaching 100 pitches with left-handed rookie Brett Callahan coming up.

Chicago manager Will Venable had just got lefty reliever Noah Schultz up in the bullpen so he wasn’t ready for Callahan.

Callahan whiffed on a 2-1 knuckle-curve from Burke. The ball eluded catcher Kyle Teel and Riley Greene raced home with the apparent tying run. The White Sox, though, challenged, contending that the pitch hit Callahan on his back leg.

Video confirmed that it did. So instead of a run and a tie game, it was strike two and Burke ultimately struck Callahan out to end the inning.

All-Star Miguel Vargas then hit Jackson Jobe’s first pitch in the bottom of the sixth into the left field seats, his 33rd homer, and the White Sox went from being tied to leading by two runs.

The slider that Vargas launched might’ve been the lone mistake Jobe made in six strong innings. He struck out nine, establishing a career high for the third straight start. And he went about his business in a very different way.

Jobe’s ticket to the big leagues has been punched by his high-velocity fastball. But was attacking the White Sox, especially early on, with just about every pitch but his fastball.

And with good results.

He had seven strikeouts through the first four innings, six with pitches other than fastballs. He struck out the side in the fourth – Munetaka Murakami, Andrew Benintendi and Colson Montgomery – and didn’t throw a single fastball to the first two hitters. He mixed in a sinker and two four-seamers in a long at-bat with Montgomery before punching him out with a curveball.

He ended up throwing 40 sliders (getting eight whiffs on 23 swings), 13 curveballs, eight changeups off 17 sinkers and 17 four-seamers.

The only walk against him came with two outs in the first inning, to Vargas, and it bit him. He didn’t hold him close at first and Vargas stole second, scoring on a bloop single by Murakami. The was the only hit Jobe allowed until the fifth.

Braden Montgomery laced a one-out double to the left-center gap, when to third on a single by Brenton Doyle and scored on a sacrifice fly by Sam Antonacci.

The Tigers’ lone run game in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by rookie Kevin McGonigle.

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