“That’s what you play the game for, the big moment when you can help your team out”.
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Chicago White Sox starter Chris Sale delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016, in Chicago.
Game notes: The Tigers are tied with the Orioles for the second wild card spot, and while Baltimore opens a series today in Tampa, the Tigers draw the Sox, whom the Tigers swept last week at Comerica Park.
“I’ve been on time a lot more”, Upton said. “We’re enjoying the ride”. Sale held the Tigers to two runs on six hits in eight innings.
Justin Verlander’s.206 batting average allowed and 0.99 WHIP are both the second best marks of his career, trailing only his 2011 Cy Young Award season (.192 and 0.92, respectively). From August 4 to September 4 Abreu’s slashed.375/.415/.692 with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs. Now 12 games over.500 (74-62), they have matched their high-water mark for the season (also at 61-49 and 73-61).
“It’s hard to look at stuff like that when we’ve been going through what we’ve been going through”, the White Sox left-hander said. “We have struggled with that this year”. Upton’s blast came after White Sox catcher Alex Avila, a former Tiger, hit the game-tying homer off Verlander in the seventh inning to the opposite field.
Shutting down Shields wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, as he appears to be in another downswing of his White Sox career – posting a 12.07 ERA and giving up 15 home runs in 28 ⅓ innings since August 2.
Tigers closer Francisco Rodriguez got the final three outs while allowing a run to pick up his 39th save of the season. He moved past John Franco for fourth on the saves list with 425. Sale has won only once in eight starts since the All-Star break, seeing another strong performance go for naught with his eight innings of two-run ball in Detroit on Wednesday. Verlander limited the White Sox to two runs on eight hits in seven innings.
Verlander’s first-inning strikeout of Melky Cabrera gave him 200 in a season for the sixth time in his career and the first time since 2013. “I get it”, he said. “I felt like they had some pretty good at-bats on me, but I was able to execute when I needed to”. On August 29, Boyd pitched four innings and gave up two earned runs in a 4-3 Tigers win. Sale struck out eight and walked none.
Cabrera became the fourth player to reach 300 homers with the Tigers with a liner to right in the first.
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Cabrera homered again in the third to increase the Tigers’ lead to 2-0. He secured his fifth multihomer game of the season with a drive to left-centre in the third, his 31st of the season. Manager Brad Ausmus said Maybin is available to pinch run. The Sox put up some fight in the bottom half, scoring a run on an Avisail Garcia single, but Tyler Saladino struck out looking to end it. Verlander has held opponents to 2 runs or less in nine of his last 10 outings. Garcia drove in Todd Frazier with a single to center field.
