DETROIT >> The questions are repetitive because the events being played out on the baseball field are repetitive.

The Tigers were beaten by the Chicago White Sox, 5-1 on Saturday. Their offense was bested by a rookie pitcher who jumped to the big leagues from Double-A and in his first two starts at this level gave up 10 runs (8 earned) in 9.1 innings.

But, the way it’s been going for the Tigers’ offense these days, it doesn’t seem to matter if they are facing 23-year-old rookie Drew Thorpe or Nolan Ryan in his prime. Thorpe, throwing 40% changeups, limited the Tigers to two hits over six scoreless innings.

They’ve scored just six runs in the last six games since scoring 13 in one game in Houston last week and have fallen back to six games under .500 (35-41).

Naturally, the post-game focus was on the struggling offense. Again.

“If we had a snap answer, we would answer it and just score,” said manager AJ Hinch. “It’s not that easy.”

Hinch talked about not winning the big at-bats, the ones where runners are in scoring position. There were only two of those against Thorpe. He talked about not being able to lift baseballs, let alone drive them into gaps. Thorpe got seven ground-ball outs in six innings.

He talked about getting better pitches to hit, making better contact or just simply finding some way to muscle a hit in a big moment.

“It’s the competition and we’re losing it right now,” he said.

Thorpe throws his 80-mph changeup off a 90-mph four-seam fastball. He wasn’t overpowering. But he bullied the Tigers nevertheless. He threw 38 changeups and got 10 whiffs on 16 swings. The three change-ups put in play were hit softly (65.7 mph average exit velocity).

“It looked exactly like his fastball coming out of his hand,” said Matt Vierling, who singled and scored the Tigers’ lone run off reliever John Brebbia in the eighth. “And he was keeping it low in the zone for the most part and getting guys to hit it on the ground.

“We had trouble adjusting to that drop in velo. Obviously, it was frustrating for all of us that we couldn’t make that adjustment.”

The Tigers came into the game with a plan to attack his fastball and then adjust to either his slider or changeup. He was spotting his fastball well enough not to get hurt with it.

“We knew (the changeup) was part of his arsenal and he sells it,” Hinch said. “There’s no secrets up here. Still, it looked like we couldn’t eliminate it. Similar to anyone who has a plus changeup or something they use a lot, your choice is to eliminate it and try to get on the heater or sit soft and try to direct the ball to the middle part of the field.

“We did neither and that gave him a chance to get into his outing clean.”

A two-out double by Riley Greene in the first inning and a two-out double by Wenceel Perez in the fourth were the only two hits Thorpe allowed in his six innings of work. Vierling’s run snapped a 14-inning drought.

“We talk about this every day,” Hinch said. “This isn’t something we try to hide. It’s not something we don’t deal with. We can beat them down and they can feel (crappy) coming to the ballpark tomorrow. That’s not a good recipe, either.”

What would help, Hinch said, is a big swing or two.

“When you think about hitting in general, even when we score runs, somebody had a bad day,” he said. “We need the reverse. We need somebody to have a really good day to kind of pick a team up; just a big swing, a big at-bat. But you can’t just snap your fingers and do it.”

The trickle-down from a dormant offense is that mild imperfections in other areas of the game tend to get magnified. Case in point: Kenta Maeda’s outing.

He didn’t pitch poorly. But he didn’t pitch deep enough into the game, made some curious pitch choices and the three runs he allowed in 4.2 innings proved insurmountable.

“He has a hard time getting into the zone early in at-bats which puts a ton of pressure on his pitches as he gets deeper in the count,” Hinch said. “Earlier in the game, he found a way to get that out or that miss, but later he didn’t.”

Maeda established an effective splitter early. He had seven whiffs on 11 swings at it through two innings. But when he got into some trouble in the fourth inning, he went away from the pitch.

Luis Robert, Jr., led off the inning with a double and stole third base uncontested. Maeda didn’t even look at him. But he got the next two hitters and it looked like he might wriggle off the hook.

But the White Sox rattled off three straight hits and scored twice to break the scoreless tie. Paul DeJong singled off a cutter. Korey Lee, who later homered off reliever Joey Wentz, singled off a slider and Nicky Lopez doubled off a four-seam fastball.The pitch that had got him through the first three innings mostly cleanly, the splitter, stayed in his toolbox for those pivotal at-bats.

“It was just a combination of everything,” Maeda said through interpreter Daichi Sekizaki. “I got into counts with the splitter. It just happened to be other pitches I gave up hits on. The catcher (Jake Rogers) gave the signs and I agreed. I agreed with all the pitches I made.”

It ended up being a 27-pitch fourth inning, which was wilting on a 91-degree day (especially with the Tigers wearing the dark City Connect uniforms). It was the hottest game the Tigers have endured since Sept. 7, 2022 when it was 99 degrees in Anaheim.

Maeda was at 75 pitches and did not survive the fifth inning.

“I feel like all my pitches are coming out better,” Maeda said. “I’ve been fine-tuning them and had good execution with the slider and split. Unfortunately, the results say otherwise.”

The frustration is growing, but not the battle level.

“Just show up tomorrow, put our work in and win some games,” Vierling said. “That’s the first thing that gets the mood up. Show up tomorrow, put in our work, trust it and go win a ballgame.”