In 2023, the Detroit Tigers went 1-28 when scoring one run or less in a game. In 2024, the Detroit Tigers are 1-0 when scoring one run in a game. Eat your hearts out, White Sox fans: we took over your 2024 Opening Day and we stole your broadcaster! Tigers win, 1-0.
Today marked the first career MLB start for Chicago pitcher Garrett Crochet, who became just the 9th player all-time to make his first start on Opening Day — that list, by the way, includes both Fernando Valenzuela and Lefty Grove! Crochet’s last start at any level came on March 7, 2020, at the collegiate level for the Tennessee Volunteers, before the official start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nobody told Crochet any of that, however, as Tigers hitters struggled with him throughout the day. Andy Ibañez struck out in his ninth-ever MLB lead-off plate appearance on a Crochet slider low and out of the zone to kick off Detroit’s 2024 campaign, beginning six innings of soft contact and whiffs from Detroit’s bats.
Fortunately, the Tigers had six excellent starter innings of their own ready for today, courtesy of Tarik Skubal. For every moment of soft contact or swing-and-miss action from the Tigers at the plate, the White Sox replicated it. AL Central veteran Andrew Benintendi struck out on a check swing of a Skubal slider for Skubal’s first out of 2024, and five more White Sox hitters punched out against Skubal in his six innings of work today.
