When: 6:40 pm Friday.
Where: Comerica Park in Detroit.
TV: Apple TV+ (online only, no Bally Sports Detroit broadcast).
Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1; Tigers radio affiliate).
Starting pitchers: Tigers LHP Joey Wentz (1-4, 7.45 ERA) vs. White Sox RHP Lance Lynn (3-4, 6.28 ERA).
• Box score
Tigers lineup: TBA.
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Game notes: It’s time to dig out that Apple TV login once more, as the Tigers’ game against the ChiSox will be only available online (or on WXYT-FM, if you’re willing to let your mind paint the pictures from Dan Dickerson’s voice) — Matt Shepard and Craig Monroe get the night off.
Old friend — he turned 36 a couple weeks ago — Lance Lynn takes the mound for the 11thth time this season, coming off arguably his best start of 2023: six innings with just four hits allowed, two walks, two runs and six strikeouts. The problem for Lynn this season has been his four-seam fastball. Once one of the best pitches in the game — it carried a minus-32 run value back in 2019, minus-16 in 2021 and even minus-9 as recently as last year. This year, however, it’s at plus-8; Lynn still has some of the best fastball spin in the majors (85th percentile, according to Statcast), but his velocity is down to the 48th percentile. (Back in 2019, those percentiles were 91 and 53, by comparison.) Still, Lynn has dominated the Tigers in the past, with a 3.39 ERA and 70 strikeouts (and just 17 walks) in 63⅔ innings over 11 starts.
Tigers starter Joey Wentz could also use some improvement with his four-seamer, with a plus-8 run value has arguably been worse than Lynn’s; its run value per 100 pitches is plus-2.7, with Lynn’s coming in at plus-1.7. (Lynn and Wentz are tied with eight other pitchers, including Tigers reliever Mason Englert, for the fourth-worst four-seamer in the majors this season. Only St. Louis’ Jack Flaherty, at plus-10, Oakland’s Ken Waldichuk, at plus -11, and Oakland’s Kyle Muller, at plus-15, have been worse.)
After tonight’s game, the Tigers and ChiSox wrap up the series with a pair of day games on Saturday and Sunday. After that, the Tigers open a three-game series against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers — no, we can’t quite believe we typed those words, either — with a day game on Memorial Day, while the Sox return home for a Monday night game against the Los Angeles Angels.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers game score vs. Chicago White Sox: Time, TV