Poor pitching overshadows Luis Robert Jr.'s stellar performance in 7-6 loss to Tigers in 10 innings

The White Sox teed off on Tigers starter Kenta Maeda, tagging him for six runs in 3⅓ innings. Luis Robert Jr. homered twice off him. On a day when the Sox’ pitching wasn’t at its best, the offense almost bailed it out.

Almost.

After holding a lead through six innings, the Sox’ bullpen imploded, allowing two runs in the seventh that tied the score and the go-ahead run in the 10th that sent the Tigers to a 7-6 victory Saturday.

Sox starter Michael Soroka allowed four runs in five innings.

“It’s one of those games where I need to settle in a little earlier, let it go and try not to do too much,” Soroka said. “It wasn’t really until the fourth or fifth inning that I felt like I was hitting my stride. In a game where Luis has a day like today, it needs to be a win, in my opinion. That’s on me.”

Soroka said he was a bit too excited for his first start of the season.

“When you’re a little overamped, you tend to throw through things,” Soroka said. “Things flatten out as opposed to liven up. My pitching just didn’t have that bite on it.”

It’s obviously way too early to sound the alarm on Soroka after his strong spring — he had a 1.38 ERA in four Cactus League starts. Manager Pedro Grifol still has confidence in him.

Yes, the Sox’ pitching performance was disappointing, but Robert put on a show. He connected on a four-seam fastball and sent it 449 feet in the first inning for a two-run homer and the Sox’ first two runs of the season.

Then Robert crushed a slider in the third inning to give the Sox a 5-3 lead. He went 3-for-4 with four RBI, seeing 29 pitches in his five plate appearances.

“He’s focusing on that,” Grifol said. “He’ll take the walk, just like he showed today. But if you come in the strike zone, he’s got capabilities of hurting you.

“Not only did I like those at-bats, the way they ended up in homers, but his other at-bat, he ended up getting a base hit to right field. That means he’s not trying to do too much. He’s staying within himself and letting the game come to him a little bit.”

For Robert, the performance validated the work and time he put in during the offseason.

“I was doing a specific drill during the offseason, just focusing on one quadrant of the strike zone,” Robert said. “If the pitch is not there, don’t try to swing at pitches that aren’t there. I worked a lot on that.”

Robert knows the type of threat he is at the plate and as a runner.

“That guy right there can win MVP; that’s for dang sure,” said shortstop Braden Shewmake, who also homered off Maeda. “I think everybody in here knows that. I think he knows that, too.”

After losing 1-0 in the opener, Grifol said his team responded with a solid job and battled. But the Sox need to figure out how to win these games, particularly when Robert has that type of a performance.

“It’s only two games,” Robert said. “We were able to put up some runs today. At the end, it didn’t go our way. But there are more games to play.”