DETROIT — Mike Vasil called it “good clean fun” at the old ballpark.
The Chicago White Sox wand-waver, out for the season after Tommy John surgery, found himself in the middle of a heated debate with Detroit starter Tarik Skubal during the Tigers’ 4-3 win over the Sox on Friday at Comerica Park.
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Skubal, making his second start since returning from surgery to clean up bone chips in his left elbow, struck out Colson Montgomery with the bases loaded to end the fifth inning and then pointed and yelled at Vasil in the Sox dugout.
“I was up there on the top step and helping the team out, cheering them on,” Vasil said. “Next thing I know, I’m getting reamed out.”
Vasil and manager Will Venable both suggested Skubal was accusing them of sign-stealing, which obviously is legal if done with someone’s eyes and not with the help of video or beating a garbage can, as Tigers manager A.J. Hinch can explain in detail.
Vasil said Skubal said “some pretty choice words, and then I shared back some choice words.”
It was definitely NSFW material, though it was all over the internet.
“It was good stuff,” Vasil said.
Vasil did not deny nor confirm he stole signs. But he definitely did not use his magic wand to determine Skubal’s pitches.
“I’ve always said I’m going to help the team and do everything I can to do it,” he said. “I’m going to be with the guy in the box. We’ve seen far worse things in the game. If we are going to be that paranoid about it, it’s just part of the game.”
The umpires conferred and spoke with Venable, who seemed puzzled by the inquisition.
“We had two umpires talking to us, no one talking to their side,” he said. “It was their guy on the mound who was yelling and causing a scene. For us, we were just trying to get though and explain to them there was nothing going on.”
Venable said “everything we do on our bench is inward, it’s above board,” and added Vasil did nothing wrong.
Was Skubal trying to fire the Tigers up as a cure for their season-long malaise?
Vasil couldn’t hazard a guess.
“Seemed pretty targeted to me,” he said of Skubal’s anger. “I’m just a guy.”
A postgame concert afterward appropriately featured Nelly.
And yes, it was hot in there.
Benitendi sits
Andrew Benintendi wasn’t in the Sox lineup Friday against Skubal.
It was no surprise, of course, even though Benintendi’s eighth inning, pinch-hit grand slam Thursday night at Yankee Stadium propelled the Sox to a 5-1 win over the New York Yankees, gave him three home runs in his last six games and continued his hot stretch in June.
Venable has mostly sat Benintendi against lefties and on Friday inserted Randall Grichuk in the DH spot and watched him homer off Skubal in the first inning. Benitendi pinch hit in the ninth and grounded out to second.
Benintendi has started only six games this season against a left-hander after getting only 12 starts against them last year. It’s a role Benintendi didn’t envision when he signed a five-year, $75 million deal in 2023, but one that he has readily accepted on a rebuilding team where winning is the priority. Grichuk came into Friday’s game with a .987 OPS against lefties and obviously earned his playing time.
After Thursday’s slam, Benintendi said it wasn’t tough for him to sit and watch from the bench at this stage of his career.
“I understand kind of my role now, throughout the year,” Benintendi said. “Last year, too, you kind of see things and know the trends as you get older. So I’m just glad to be a part of it and contribute.”
Benintendi isn’t all that old. He turns 32 next month and still has some good years left in him, though probably not in the outfield.
But after three losing seasons on the South Side, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win, even if that means sitting more often than usual. Venable said every player is different in how they handle a situation like Beintendi’s.
“I think in Beni’s case, he’s somebody that still very much has an important role on this team, both in the clubhouse and on the field,” Venable said. “He’s getting a ton of at-bats and playing a lot, and I expose him to left-handed pitching at times.
“We just happen to have Grichuk and some other guys really good at facing left-handed pitching. Ben is really excited to come help in any way they can on a daily basis. Sometimes that means facing lefties, sometimes it means it’s not. We saw (Thursday) night, whatever the opportunity is, he’s going to be ready to go.”
The Sox need that leadership in the clubhouse, where he and Grichuk are the only real veterans among position players.
“I don’t think I’m too much of a vocal guy,” Benintendi said. “I try to sit back and let the young guys (talk). This is kind of like their team now. A lot of guys debuted last year, and what do we have, 13 now that have debuted this year?
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“Obviously if there are things that need to be said I’ll say or hint at it. Just going back and having fun. The last two years here have obviously been a rebuild, and now that we’ve had a state of success, we expect to show up and win, which is huge for us.”
Benintendi has started heating up at the right time. In his 16 games since Munetaka Murakami went down with a hamstring injury, Benintendi has six home runs and 14 RBIs in 46 at-bats with a 1.095 OPS. His career .823 OPS in June is the highest of any month.
“I feel like June has proven to be the best month of my career,” he said. “I wish I could get it started a little earlier, but we’ll take it.”
The grand slam could prove to be one of the Sox’s biggest clutch hits of the season after they were pounded in the first two games of the Yankees series. It was the first pinch-hit grand slam by a Sox player since Orlando Hudson in 2012, and Benintendi became the second visiting player to hit a pinch grand slam in either old or new Yankee Stadium, joining former White Sox pitcher Tommy Byrne, who hit one off Ewell Blackwell on May 16, 1953.
Tigers take opener
The Sox came into the three-game series against the Tigers knowing they have a chance to alter the future of Detroit’s organization.
Kerry Carpenter’s two-run bloop double off Erick Fedde in the sixth erased a 3-2 Sox lead and gave them the win. Tristan Peters made a vain dive for the ball, which got past him and allowed both baserunners to score. Fedde pitched well in 4 2/3 innings, but opener Brandon Eisert gave up two first inning runs on Matt Vierling’s two-run home run.
Junior Pérez had his first major-league hit and a home run, but the Sox couldn’t muster much offense.
Fedde is playing the good soldier but really should not be a bulk pitcher like the other younger Sox starters. The Sox announced after the game that Sean Newcomb will be the opener Saturday in an apparent bullpen game. Venable declined to say how he would handle it after the loss.
The Tigers are on the ropes, trailing the first-place Sox and Cleveland Guardians by nine games, and received more bad news before the game when Justin Verlander’s highly anticipated return Sunday was scratched after he suffered a hamstring injury during a bullpen session.
Without a strong run in the next few weeks, a trade deadline sell-off is a distinct possibility for Tigers President Scott Harris, a former Theo Epstein protégé with the Cubs.
“The future for a lot of people in this room — not just myself — the outlook could look very much different in two months and it all comes to an abrupt end,” Skubal said in an interview with the Detroit News. “We still control our destiny a little bit. We still do.
“We play the team this weekend that’s winning our division. It’s another big series. You don’t want to be playing playoff baseball in June, but it feels like we’re playing playoff baseball. We don’t have very much room for error, and everyone understands that.”
As bad as the Tigers have been, they still pose a threat to the Sox, who went 6-5 in an 11-game stretch against four of baseball’s top teams — the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and Yankees.
There is no slowdown on the road to respectability.