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Tigers rally off Jenks to beat White Sox

Sep 6, 2007 - 9:09 PM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Placido Polanco singled home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Detroit Tigers a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.

By taking the rubber game of a three-game series, the Tigers improved to 75-65 and are now three games behind the idle New York Yankees (78-62) in the American League wild card.

The Tigers trailed 2-1 entering the bottom of the ninth against closer Bobby Jenks (3-5). But Timo Perez was safe at first on rookie second baseman Danny Richar's throwing error and moved to second.

"Obviously I made some good pitches out there," Jenks said. "Whether they were too good or they weren't just good enough ... it's just one of those frustrating days where you know you made the outs, they just somehow did enough to get guys over."

Mike Rabelo sacrificed Perez to third, where he was replaced by pinch runner Cameron Maybin. Sean Casey then hit for Ramon Santiago and singled to left, scoring Maybin with the tying run.

"I just wanted to get the bunt down fair," Rabelo said. "If I didn't, I was going to run myself out of the stadium."

Omar Infante ran for Casey, and moved to second when Brandon Inge grounded out. After Curtis Granderson was hit by pitch, Polanco singled to left, scoring Infante with the game-winning run.

"I knew what kind a pitcher he is, a great one," Polanco said. "I just wanted to get him early in the count, be aggressive and get a good swing at the ball."

That made a winner of Bobby Seay (3-0), who pitched a scoreless ninth with a pair of strikeouts.

"It been a fun couple of days," Seay said. "The team won, I got a couple of wins, that's real good."

Detroit started the scoring in the third inning with Brandon Inge's 13th home run of the season. He finished with three hits.

"That's baseball," Inge said. "Sometimes you see the ball good, sometimes you don't. Today was one of the good times."

That was the only mistake by Chicago starter Mark Buehrle, who pitched seven solid innings, allowing seven hits while walking one and striking out four. Despite the strong outing, the lefthander remained winless in his last six starts.

"I just go out there and do my job," Buehrle said. "That's the only thing I can do. Six, seven, eight innings, whatever I can do, then turn it over to the bullpen. Just one more. That's all I'm begging for, just one more win."

The White Sox could not muster much offense either against Detroit starter Chad Durbin, who pitched five scoreless innings. He yielded five hits, walked one and had a strikeout.

"I didn't want to come out of the game," Durbin said. "He (manager Jim Leyland) asked me how I felt and I said, 'I could go back out there.' But I didn't answer the question. Then he asked me again and I said, 'I'm having trouble keeping the ball down now.'

"They know best. They can see when you're tired more than you can."

The score stayed 1-0 until the eighth inning when White Sox slugger Paul Konerko singled off reliever Fernando Rodney with the bases loaded, scoring a pair of runs for the 2-1 advantage.

Gary Sheffield, who was out since August 21 with a shoulder injury, was 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts in his return off the disabled list.

"The shoulder felt real good," Sheffield said. "I took a couple of powerful swings without any pain. I saw the ball good but my timing was off. The more pitches that I get to see the better I'll get."