White Sox beat Tigers, Anderson wins batting title

[September 30, 2019]  Welington Castillo homered to cap a four-run sixth, and Ross Detwiler pitched 5 1/3 strong innings to help the host Chicago White Sox close the regular season with a 5-3 win against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon.

Kelvin Herrera navigated a solo home run from Ronny Rodriguez in the ninth inning to notch his first save of the season for Chicago (72-89), which lost fewer than 90 games for the first time since 2016. The Tigers (47-114) finished with the most losses in Major League Baseball for the third time in club history.

Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson won the American League batting title with a .335 average, becoming the first White Sox player to accomplish the feat since Frank Thomas in 1997.

Although Anderson went 0-for-2 Sunday -- grounding out to third base in the first inning and lining out to center field in the third -- he finished eight points ahead of New York Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu to secure the crown. Anderson's average led all of Major League baseball one season after he batted .240.

"I continued to work, and it turned into this," Anderson said.

Anderson took a curtain call from the crowd of 19,534 upon leaving the game for defensive replacement Danny Mendick in the top of the fifth.

The White Sox had just one hit against Tigers rookie right-hander Spencer Turnbull through five innings but broke through in the sixth. Jose Abreu followed Mendick's leadoff walk with a double before Yoan Moncada tied the game at 2 with a run-scoring groundout.

White Sox third baseman Yoan Moncada (10) falls to the ground after swinging at a pitch against the Detroit Tigers during the third inning at Guaranteed Rate Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Bartel-USA TODAY Sports

An RBI double off the bat of Eloy Jimenez chased Turnbull and gave Chicago the lead for good. Castillo punctuated the rally with a two-run home run.

Detroit opened the scoring on Miguel Cabrera's solo home run with two outs in the first inning. The White Sox answered in the bottom half, as Jimenez reached on a throwing error to score Abreu, who finished as the AL RBI leader with 123.

Jordy Mercer and Rodriguez each had two hits and an RBI for Detroit.

Detwiler scattered two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings with one walk and three strikeouts. Jimmy Cordero (1-1) was the winner, walking one in 2/3 of an inning.

Turnbull (3-17) allowed four runs -- three earned -- and three hits in 5 1/3 innings with one walk and seven strikeouts.

--Field Level Media

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