Fulmer falters under pressure, White Sox fall to Tigers 7-5

Like any big-league pitcher with big-time aspirations, Carson Fulmer lives for big-moment opportunities.

But when the White Sox’ top pitching prospect was thrown into first big-pressure situation less than a week into his major league career, Fulmer failed to deliver.

Fulmer, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2015 draft, gave up three runs over two-thirds of an inning and became the latest Sox reliever to fail to protect a lead in a 7-5 loss to the Tigers at U.S. Cellular Field.

Fulmer struggled with his command and found the strike zone on only 12 of his 30 pitches. And after being used in a pair of appearances earlier this week against the Angels and Mariners, the kind of performance Fulmer may have been hoping for after being called up from Class AA Birmingham never materialized.

“You have those days and obviously it’s tough,” Fulmer said. “But you have to throw it over your shoulder and get ready for tomorrow.”

Fulmer took over in the seventh inning after Justin Morneau’s three-run homer in the fifth erased a two-run deficit and gave the Sox a 5-4 lead. But in a week when the Sox bullpen had already take its fair share of lumps this week, Fulmer became the latest face of the Sox’ frustrating second-half start.

The Sox (46-50) lost for the eighth time in the last nine games and 10 in their last 13. This week’s stretch of bullpen disappointments has become a theme. After David Robertson and Dan Jennings each yielded walk-off home runs in losses to the Mariners, Fulmer became the latest Sox reliever to struggle.

Fulmer surrendered a pair of walks and a single to load the bases. After the Tigers tied the game at 5 on a Jose Iglesias fielder’s choice and Tim Anderson threw out what would have been the go-ahead run on an Ian Kinsler fielder’s choice, Fulmer appeared to close to escaping with only yielding a limited amount of damage.

But when Fulmer issued his third walk of the inning and left with the bases loaded, the harm he had created only got worse.

Miguel Cabrera laced a two-out, two-run single off of Nate Jones to give the Tigers the lead for good.

Afterward, Fulmer said nerves weren’t an issue.

“It’s part of the game – it’s why you play it,” Fulmer said. “It’s definitely challenging, but as a pitcher, you want to be put in those type of situations. I can’t ever the use the excuse of it being my first big-time experience and especially me being put in that situation.”

Morneau’s three-run homer brought the Sox back after starter Jacob Turner struggled with his command. Turner gave up four runs over 3 1/3 innings of work as the Sox watched an early 1-0 lead disappear.

Although the outing Fulmer wasn’t what he was hoping for, it’s one that may be the jumping off point he needed.

“He’s going to have to have it sooner later,” manager Robin Ventura said. “From the the first two (outings) went, I felt comfortable he was going to come in there a be able to do that. I have the confidence that he can come back from this and be very effective in that spot.”

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