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Tigers try to continue recent dominance of White Sox

Apr 24, 2011 - 3:35 PM (Sports Network) - The Detroit Tigers aim for their ninth straight win against the AL Central-rival Chicago White Sox when the two ballclubs collide this afternoon at Comerica Park.

Detroit has won eight straight and 10 of the previous 11 meetings with the White Sox, and has outscored Chicago by a 18-3 margin in the first two contests of this three-game series. It posted a 9-3 triumph in Friday's series opener and followed that by handing the Pale Hose a 9-0 loss yesterday afternoon.

Brad Penny recorded his first win in a Tigers uniform by throwing seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball with three strikeouts and two walks. Ryan Perry and Al Alburquerque both added a scoreless inning of relief, while Ryan Raburn and Alex Avila finished with three and two RBI, respectively, for the Tigers, who have won three straight and eight of their last 11 games. Detroit is unbeaten in four straight at home.

"I was just throwing strikes and cut out the walks," Penny said. "Tonight we had great defense and turned out a lot of runs."

The Tigers, above .500 for the first time this season, will host Seattle for three games after this series, and haven't won nine in a row against the White Sox since a 10-game stretch during the 1923 campaign.

Detroit young starter Max Scherzer will try to continue his career-best start this afternoon when he toes the rubber. Scherzer is 3-0 with a 4.30 earned run average in four starts this season and is coming off Monday's 8-3 victory at SEattle in which the right-hander allowed two runs in six innings with seven strikeouts.

Scherzer has fanned seven batters in back-to-back starts and has lasted at least five innings in every outing so far this season. He has made four career starts against the White Sox, going 1-1 with a 3.34 ERA.

The lowly White Sox will continue an 11-game road trip Sunday and have lost two straight and nine of their last 10 games.

In Saturday's shutout loss in the Motor City, Brent Morel led the offense with a team-best two hits for Chicago, which was outhit by a 15-5 margin and received a rough outing from losing starter Edwin Jackson. Jackson was banged around for eight runs -- seven earned -- and 12 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

"Guys have bad outings. They just happen," Chicago catcher A.J. Pierzynski said of Jackson. "But he battled."

Chicago, which is 1-5 so far on the trek, will head to the Bronx to take on the New York Yankees for four games following this current set with Detroit.

John Danks is still searching for his first win of the 2011 campaign, as he sports an 0-2 mark with a 3.00 earned run average in four starts. Danks will take the hill Sunday and his second loss of the season came courtesy of Tampa Bay in a 2-1 loss on Tuesday, when he was reached for both runs and seven hits in seven innings.

Danks struck out five Rays batters and has recorded that many K's in each of his four outings this season. The lefty's also lasted six or more innings each time on the hill. In 11 career starts against the rival Tigers, Danks is 3-4 with a 4.12 ERA. Detroit won 10 of 18 matchups with the Pale Hose a year ago.