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White Sox-Tigers Preview

Aug 5, 2010 - 3:41 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Chicago (60-46) at Detroit (53-53), 1:05 p.m. EDT

Freddy Garcia is enjoying a winning streak of eight starts as a visitor to Comerica Park. Max Scherzer has won his last six outings at the Detroit Tigers' home.

One of those streaks is bound to end Thursday afternoon when the Tigers and Chicago White Sox complete their four-game series.

Garcia (10-4, 4.73 ERA) is 18-6 with a 3.74 ERA in 28 career starts against Detroit (53-54), including 9-1 with a 3.72 ERA in his last 11. He's 8-0 with a 2.80 ERA in his last eight outings at Comerica as a visitor, including a 6-2 victory May 18 in which he allowed two over six innings.

Garcia did lose once at Comerica during that stretch - in his only start there for the Tigers on Sept. 23, 2008, against Kansas City.

Garcia will be pitching on extra rest after allowing three runs over six innings to earn a 9-5 win over Seattle on July 29. The White Sox (61-46) have been cautious with the 33-year-old right-hander, who is 19 innings shy of surpassing his total from the previous three seasons combined. He's 1-1 with a 3.12 ERA in four starts this year with at least six days' rest.

While Garcia's streak in Detroit is impressive, Scherzer (7-8, 4.28) has also taken advantage of the park's spacious dimensions, posting a 1.33 ERA while winning all six of his home starts since a loss to Baltimore on May 14.

This is the right-hander's second start against the White Sox. He gave up three runs over 7 1-3 innings in a 3-0 road loss June 10.

Scherzer was sharp in his last outing, yielding one run over 6 1-3 innings of Saturday's 5-4 loss at Boston. He did not get a decision, but lowered his ERA in day games to 2.63 - compared to his 5.43 ERA at night.

Chicago has won eight of its last 10 games, including Wednesday's 4-1 victory. Onetime Tigers starter Edwin Jackson allowed one run over seven innings in his White Sox debut, helping lower Chicago's staff ERA to 2.83 over the last 10 games.

"The way our pitching staff is going, we know that we're going to win a lot of games if we can just score three or four runs," said first baseman Paul Konerko, who is 5 for 11 with two homers in this series.

The White Sox remained 1 1/2 games ahead of Minnesota in the AL Central race.

Detroit went 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position en route to its 16th loss in 21 games since the All-Star break.

"It's great to have opportunities, but someone has to drive them in," manager Jim Leyland said. "It isn't going to be me - I was a career .233 hitter in the minor leagues - so these guys have to do it."

Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge went 3 for 4 after being activated from the disabled list. Inge had been expected to miss up to six weeks after having his left hand broken by a pitch from the Texas Rangers' Scott Feldman on July 19, but ended up returning in the minimum 15 days.