Cueto, White Sox end skid with 8-0 rout of Tigers
Johnny Cueto allowed 5 hits over eight innings, Gavin Sheets hit a 3-run homer and the Chicago White Sox beat Detroit 8-0 Saturday at Guranteed Rate Field to end the Tigers' season-high six-game winning streak.
Cueto (3-4) and José Ruiz combined on a six-hitter in the 11th shutout against the Tigers this season. Cueto struck out five and walked none in the longest outing by a White Sox pitcher in 2022. He had allowed 8 runs over his previous 17⅓ innings.
"It's just a beautiful thing to watch, from our side," manager Tony La Russa said.
Detroit didn't have an extra-base hit until Spencer Torkelson's eighth-inning double.
"He was good," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said of Cueto. "It was his day. We didn't really do a ton against him to stress him. He made pitches, the ball moves, he disrupts timing, the quick pitch, the slow pitch, everything in-between. He's a veteran guy who's evolved. He left a little in the tank for later, started hitting 93s, 94s."
Kody Clemens, a son of Roger Clemens who usually plays left and the infield, threw a 1-2-3 eighth for Detroit in his second big league pitching appearance. Kody Clemens made his mound debut against the White Sox on June 15.
José Abreu, Tim Anderson and Sheets each had a pair of hits for the White Sox, who have won two of their last six. The reigning AL Central champions improved to 18-25 at home.
Detroit's winning streak was its longest since seven in a row last July 17-22.
Miguel Cabrera went 0 for 3, a day after he was selected to his 12th All-Star Game.
Sheets hit a 3-run home run on a 3-0 pitch by Garrett Hill (1-1) in the first after Andrew Vaughn doubled and Luis Robert walked.
"That's something that we did really well last year and that's something we do as a team," Sheets said of the two-out hits. "So to see that today was a good sign. Obviously missing (injured catcher Yasmani Grandal), but we're at full health, and this is the lineup we expect to produce every day."
Robert added an RBI single and Abreu hit a two-run double in the second. Abreu's hitting streak reached 14 games.
The White Sox extended their lead to 8-0 in the sixth on an Anderson RBI single and a wild pitch by Will Vest.
Looking back:
Cueto, a 15-year veteran, signed with Chicago as a minor league free agent April 8. The White Sox selected his contract from Triple-A Charlotte May 16.
"He should have been in here since Opening Day, that's what he's meant," La Russa said. "He's picked us up when we needed it. We were talking about it earlier, it still bothers a lot of us the records of our starting rotation. Johnny is still an under-.500 pitcher and he's pitched much better than that. But get that offense going like it was today."
Added Cueto, "You work for this."