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Tigers end slide, trounce White Sox

Aug 8, 2008 - 5:14 AM By Rory Spears PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Zach Miner kept the Detroit Tigers from being swept out of the Windy City.

Miner (6-4) pitched six effective innings and Miguel Cabrera collected three hits and three RBI as the Tigers snapped their six-game losing streak with an 8-3 triumph over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.

The Tigers (56-58) entered the contest 8 1/2 games behind the American League Central Division-leading White Sox, and falling yet another game behind Chicago could have left Detroit's playoff chances in jeopardy.

"This is a nice win for us," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We wanted two out of three this series so we would pick up a game on them. Instead, they picked up one game, but at least we are not 9 1/2 (games) behind."

Despite the loss, Chicago (63-50) remained alone in first place by one-half game over the idle Minnesota Twins (63-51).

Cabrera opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the third inning and added an RBI single in the fifth. Curtis Granderson belted a solo shot in the seventh and Magglio Ordonez highlighted a three-run ninth with a two-run triple - his first three-base hit since 2006.

"It's nice to get a win today," Cabrera said. "The last two games, things didn't happen for us. Now we go home and hopefully will win some games."

The offensive support was more than enough for Miner (6-4), who allowed two runs - one earned - and seven hits in six innings. The 26-year-old righthander, who has won two straight against Chicago after losing his first five career decisions vs. the club, struck out three without a walk.

"I tried mixing up all my pitches," Miner said. "Moving around my fastball and changing speeds was the key to keeping them off-balance."

Joel Zumaya and Bobby Seay bridged the gap to Fernando Rodney, who retired four of the five batters he faced en route to his second save.

White Sox starter Javier Vazquez (8-10) was tagged for five runs and eight hits in seven innings. The veteran walked four and struck out eight in falling to 1-5 over his last eight starts.

"I made some mistakes tonight, and they really hurt me," Vazquez said. "It's kind of frustrating, but I will keep working and hopefully pitch better."

Cabrera gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the third with his 21st homer of the season. Chicago threatened a frame later, loading the bases with one out, but Miner struck out Ken Griffey Jr. and Alexei Ramirez to escape unscathed.

"That was a big inning for me," Miner said. "I just kept trying to make pitches. We had the lead at that point, so I just tried to hold them to a run or two."

"We had some chances but didn't take advantage of all of them," said Chicago's Paul Konerko, who collected three hits. "But we can't blame ourselves too much because that takes credit away from Zach Miner. He pitched a great game."

Carlos Guillen, who scored three times, delivered a one-out RBI triple in the fifth and came around to score on a single by Cabrera as the Tigers doubled their lead to 4-0. But the White Sox finally broke through against Miner in the bottom half as Nick Swisher and Juan Uribe opened the frame with back-to-back ground-rule doubles.

A throwing error by Detroit shortstop Ramon Santiago in the sixth allowed Chicago to close within 4-2. With a runner on second and two outs, Ramirez hit a two-hop infield single to Santiago, who made a wild throw to first baseman Cabrera that allowed Konerko to score.

Detroit opened a 5-2 lead in the seventh inning, when Granderson led off with his 14th homer of the season, a shot that eluded leaping right fielder Griffey and landed in the Tigers' bullpen.

Carlos Quentin swatted his 30th blast in the eighth, a one-out solo shot off Seay that pulled Chicago within 5-3.

The White Sox had a chance to even the game later in the inning, but Jim Thome was thrown out at the plate by left fielder Ryan Raburn while attempting to score from first on Konerko's double.

"I should have taken into consideration (Thome's) sore leg," Chicago third base coach Jeff Cox said. "The ball did kick pretty far away from (Raburn), but I should have held Jim up."

Two batters later, Ramirez hit a sinking liner to left-center that was caught by a sliding Raburn, who had replaced Marcus Thames in the field a frame earlier.

"It's nice to make a play like that when you are brought in as a defensive replacement," Raburn said. "In my mind, I just wanted to cut the ball off. Then, halfway there, I thought I had a chance to catch it, so I went for it."

The Tigers added three runs in the ninth as Ordonez ripped a two-run triple over the head of right fielder Swisher and scored two batters later on Matt Joyce's double off the glove of left fielder Quentin.