Sox Fall To Tigers 8-5
DETROIT (AP) — Prince Fielder homered, Rick Porcello pitched six solid innings and the Detroit Tigers bounced back Wednesday night with an 8-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
Detroit allowed 23 hits in an 11-4 loss to the White Sox on Tuesday, but it was the Tigers who did the slugging early on in this game. Fielder lined a two-run shot to right field in the first inning for his 16th homer of the year.
Alex Avila's two-run single in the third put Detroit ahead 5-1.
Conor Gillaspie and Gordon Beckham homered for Chicago.
Porcello (6-6) allowed three runs and seven hits. Joaquin Benoit pitched the ninth for his eighth save in eight chances.
Dylan Axelrod (3-6) allowed seven runs and 11 hits in 5 2-3 innings.
The Tigers extended their AL Central lead over second-place Cleveland to 3 ½ games.
Fielder, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez had three hits each for Detroit. Cabrera's run-scoring single in the sixth pushed his major league-leading RBI total to 93.
Chicago's Alex Rios was hitless a night after going 6 for 6, and the White Sox never led Wednesday. After Gillaspie's homer in the second, the Tigers made it 3-1 on Austin Jackson's RBI triple in the bottom of the inning.
Axelrod's problems continued in the third when Avila lined a single to right with the bases loaded. The ball landed just in front of a diving Rios, and two runs came home.
Axelrod has allowed 29 earned runs in 28 innings in his last six starts.
Porcello won his second straight start — he blanked Cleveland for seven innings last week. Chicago scored twice in the fourth on an RBI single by Dayan Viciedo and a sacrifice fly by Beckham, but right fielder Torii Hunter made a diving, back-handed catch on Beckham's hit to prevent further damage.
Porcello struck out six without a walk.
Detroit added three runs in the sixth on consecutive RBI singles by Cabrera, Fielder and Martinez. That made it 8-3, but Tigers reliever Bruce Rondon allowed Beckham's homer and an RBI double by Alexei Ramirez in a shaky seventh.
Drew Smyly worked a perfect eighth for Detroit, and Benoit overcame two ninth-inning walks to close it out.
NOTES: All eight of Detroit's runs came with two out. ... Detroit's Victor Martinez had two singles to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. ... Chicago left-hander Chris Sale (5-8) faces Detroit right-hander Anibal Sanchez (7-5) on Thursday.
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