DETROIT — Left-hander Carlos Rodon gathered himself nicely after a rocky third inning.
A younger, less mature Rodon might have lost it after not getting a called third strike in a key situation. In fact, he says he would have flipped.
“I tried to not let it get to me in the moment,’’ Rodon said after the White Sox held on for a 6-5 victory over the Tigers Wednesday, which gave them a rare series win at Comerica Park. “I gave up three runs but ended up going deep in the game. When I was younger, I’d throw a fit and be out of there.’’
Backed by home runs from Jose Abreu (three RBI) and Matt Davidson (two RBI), Rodon improved to 4-3 with a 2.69 ERA with his seventh consecutive strong start that further establishes his place as staff ace, pitching eight innings of three-run ball, all the runs coming in the third inning.
Rodon walked one batter and struck out six while allowing five hits, three of them in the third when he hit Jeimer Candelario on the foot with a pitch to load the bases after it appeared he had thrown a called third strike past him. Umpire Jansen Visconti disagreed.
“I knew this question was coming,” Rodon said. “Tough call. The ball was in the [Statcast] box. We were trying to go in, and I missed my spot, but a strike is a strike. But the beautiful thing about this game is the human error. The umpires are trying to get every call right. I appreciate that from them, but sometimes they miss a call.”
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Rodon said it was on him to make another good pitch, but he hit Candelario with a backfoot slider. He also walked Mikie Mahtook to lead off the inning and gave up run-scoring hits to Jose Iglesias and Nicholas Castellanos.
“So that’s on me,” he said. “I’ve been in that situation before where I don’t get that call and I’m out of the game in the third or the fourth. Sometimes you have to play with some adversity.’’
Rodon has been one of baseball’s best pitchers over his last six starts, going 3-0 with a 1.41 ERA with 36 strikeouts and 14 walks during that span. In this one, he threw 68 of 105 pitches for strikes.
“It’s such a right-handed dominated lineup that [the changeup] has to be there to be effective, get early outs and be able to go deep,’’ he said. “Luckily, today I had it, got ground-ball outs and fly balls, and it worked out.”
His slider also was on point, “getting them swinging early,” he said.
Abreu, the designated hitter Wednesday, and Davidson, who played third base, each had three hits. Yolmer Sanchez (3-for-5), playing shortstop while Tim Anderson was rested, had the Sox’ other RBI. Abreu has 21 homers and 73 RBI and is warming up for a run at another 25 homer, 100 RBI season. He said Rodon, as good as he has been, is just warming up, too.
“Impressed? Surprised? No,’’ Abreu said through translator Billy Russo. “I still think he can do more. We all know the talent he has and how he good he is. I think we are just watching the tip of the iceberg.’’
Jordan Zimmermann (5-5) took the loss for the Tigers, who scored two runs in the ninth against Sox relievers Jeanmar Gomez and Luis Avilan (second save) but left the tying and winning runs on base.
The result gave the Sox (44-76) only their second series victory at Comerica Park since 2015.
