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White Sox finally get to Willis, keep Tigers winless

Apr 6, 2008 - 12:20 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- After failing to get a hit until the sixth inning, the Chicago White Sox finally took advantage of Dontrelle Willis' wildness and kept the Detroit Tigers winless.

Joe Crede hit the go-ahead sacrifice fly to cap a four-run sixth inning Saturday as the White Sox rallied for a 5-3 victory over the Tigers.

Jermaine Dye homered and scored twice and Jim Thome had an RBI double for Chicago, which won its third straight game.

"We believe that we can come back every game," Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We continue to fight back and never give up. Hopefully tomorrow, we will play the same way."

With the White Sox trailing, 3-0, in the top of the sixth, Willis issued leadoff walks to Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera.

Thome followed with the first hit off Willis - an RBI double to left field, which knocked the lefthander out of the game. Willis did not strike out a batter in his five-plus innings, walking seven and allowing three runs and one hit.

"I was terrible out there, that's the bottom line," Willis said. "But again, even when you're terrible, you still have to battle, try to make outs and keep the team in it. Just trying too hard, that's it."

Paul Konerko cut the deficit to 3-2 with an RBI groundout to third off reliever Zach Miner (0-1) and, two batters later, Carlos Quentin tied the game with a run-scoring single up the middle. Crede gave the White Sox a 4-3 lead with a sacrifice fly to left.

"(Willis) got out of some jams with some double-play balls, but obviously, too many walks," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "Eventually, that catches up with you. He managed to get out of it most of the time, but eventually, in the long run, that will haunt you a little bit, which it did."

The big inning made a winner of Gavin Floyd (1-0), who surrendered three runs and six hits with two walks and two strikeouts in six innings.

"He came out of spring training throwing well and continued to do so today," Guillen said. "He made the pitches when he needed to."

Dye gave Chicago a two-run cushion in the top of the eighth, blasting a solo home run to left off Francis Beltran.

Boone Logan and Scott Linebrink each pitched a scoreless inning to bridge the gap to Bobby Jenks, who worked around a single and a walk with two outs in the ninth to notch his third save in as many days. Jenks got rookie Clete Thomas to ground into a fielder's choice to third with runners on first and second.

Brandon Inge provided the offense for the Tigers with an RBI double in the second and a two-run home run in the fourth inning.

Detroit (0-5), which is off to its worst start since losing its first nine games to begin the 2003 campaign, remains the lone winless team in the major leagues.

"We're a good ballclub," Inge said. "When I was here early, early in my career, those teams had to battle to just win a game. This team isn't like that. It's a good team and we're going through a little rough stretch right now."