Detroit Tigers end Chicago White Sox seven-game win streak
All good things must come to an end, and the Chicago White Sox seven-game win streak is a thing of the past.
The Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander (15-8) ended that streak with a 9-1 thrashing of the White Sox on Tuesday night at Comerica Park. Verlander made it clear from the beginning that the White Sox were going to be in for a long night and that they were going to have little success against him.
He tossed seven innings, yielding only five hits with seven strikeout on the way to his 15th win. Verlander relied on his curveball, breaking ball and of course his bread and butter, the fastball. All of his pitches were working on Tuesday and he is probably feeling like his former self, which is good news for the Tigers.
"I've always talked about the breaking ball as my second-best pitch," Verlander said. "But it hasn't quite been there all year. I felt like tonight it was definitely the best it's been."
His lone blemish came in the third, after Juan Pierre doubled and Omar Vizquel singled with one out in the third, allowing A.J. Pierzynski to score their lone run. Pierzynski’s was one of the few bright spots for the White Sox. His two hits extended his hitting streak to 14 games. But Chicago could not muster any offence after that.
On the opposite side, Freddy Garcia pitched a scoreless second inning before exiting with lower back stiffness. Right-hander Lucas Harrell came in relief and started the third inning.
"You could tell Freddy wasn't quite right," said Detroit manager Jim Leyland. "I was a little worried, because they brought in a guy that we hadn't seen before. But we were able to add on a couple runs."
Leyland had nothing to worry about as Detroit's bats were hot and showed no signs of slowing down despite the early susbstitute at the mound, and scored six runs heading into the fourth inning.
"[Down] 6-1 with Verlander, that's a long way to get there, a deep hole to try and get [out] from," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.
Detroit’s Johnny Damon opened the scoring in the first inning when he blasted a two-run homer off White Sox starter Garcia to right field. The barrage continued in the third frame aftter Don Kelly, Brennan Boesch and Jhonny Peralta came through with run-scoring hits.
The loss moves Chicago 4.5 games back in AL Central behind the Twins.
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