The Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox meet on Thursday, June 5, 2025, at Guaranteed Rate Field in a divisional matchup that highlights two teams on opposite ends of the American League spectrum, with Detroit continuing its surge toward contention and Chicago aiming to salvage pride during a difficult season. The Tigers come into this game with a strong 39–22 record, fueled by a potent offense led by Spencer Torkelson, who has slugged 14 home runs and driven in 42 runs, alongside consistent contributions from Riley Greene and Gleyber Torres, both of whom are batting in the mid-.270s and providing timely extra-base hits. Their rotation has been anchored by Jack Flaherty and supported by a bullpen that’s proven effective in protecting leads, and for this game, they’re expected to hand the ball to Casey Mize, recently activated and looking to regain his pre-injury form using a fastball-slider mix that generates soft contact and ground balls. On the other side, the White Sox limp into the matchup at 18–41, enduring a season marked by rebuilding struggles and inconsistency across the board, but they have shown recent signs of resilience, going 7–3 ATS over their last ten games despite continued issues with run prevention and scoring reliability. Chicago will start Jonathan Cannon, a rookie right-hander with a 4.49 ERA and 1.33 WHIP, who’s shown flashes of promise but tends to falter beyond the first two times through the lineup, which puts pressure on a bullpen that has struggled to limit damage in the late innings.

Offensively, the White Sox have leaned on Miguel Vargas and Chase Meidroth for sparks, with both players doing their best to generate production in a lineup that’s batting just .221 collectively and struggling to string together multi-run innings. Detroit has won four of the last five meetings in this series and covered the spread in 12 of their last 15 road games against the White Sox, making them a popular pick among bettors especially when favored by more than a run. The total for this game is set at 8.5, and while Tigers games have been trending toward the over recently due to their scoring consistency and the White Sox’s bullpen vulnerabilities, it could shift toward the under if both starters manage to keep traffic limited through the first five innings. Ultimately, the keys to this game are fairly clear: Detroit will look to jump on Cannon early and allow Mize to pitch with a lead, while Chicago’s best chance lies in keeping the game close into the seventh and finding a way to exploit any command lapses from Mize or Detroit’s middle relievers. If the Tigers continue their recent trend of playing fundamentally sound baseball with aggressive baserunning, consistent contact, and late-inning execution, they’ll likely leave Chicago with another road win and an even stronger grip on their postseason ambitions. Conversely, if the White Sox can manage a rare clean outing on the mound and capitalize on whatever chances they get with runners in scoring position, they may yet disrupt Detroit’s momentum and pick up a morale-boosting win in front of the home crowd.