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Tigers beat White Sox 18-2 to sweep key series

Sep 5, 2011 - 5:29 AM Detroit, MI (Sports Network) - If the White Sox find themselves looking back on a series that killed their season, this would be it.

Miguel Cabrera and Andy Dirks both hit two-run homers and knocked in four runs apiece, and the Tigers dealt the White Sox a crushing three-game sweep with an 18-2 win on Sunday night.

First place Detroit outscored Chicago 35-11 in the series, knocking the White Sox 8 1/2 games back in the AL Central.

"A very bad weekend," said Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen. "We got here at the wrong time, I guess. Those guys swung the bat good all weekend and we couldn't stop it."

Alex Avila had four of Detroit's 24 hits, an offensive outburst that helped Max Scherzer comfortably increase his career-high win total.

Scherzer (14-8) threw seven shutout innings, giving up just five hits, and struck out six without issuing a walk as the Tigers won their third straight to remain 6 1/2 games ahead of second place Cleveland in the division.

The White Sox, mired in a four-game losing streak, didn't scored until the ninth inning. They had three of their nine hits in the frame.

The Tigers scored 15 of their runs in just three innings and moved to 18-6 in the last 24 meetings between the teams.

"The guys were ready to play," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.

Starter Mark Buehrle (11-7) took the brunt of the abuse, but the bullpen was also complicit.

It started with Victor Martinez's RBI single in the first inning and continued with a three-run third, when Martinez and Avila both singled home runs. But things didn't turn ugly until the fourth, when the Tigers scored five times and knocked Buehrle out of the game.

The left-hander was pulled for Addison Reed after giving up an RBI single to Delmon Young and Cabrera's two-run double. Cabrera later scored on Avila's base hit to center, sliding behind a swiping tag by catcher A.J. Pierzynski, and Avila came home on Jhonny Peralta's single to make it 9-0.

Buehrle was charged with eight runs -- seven earned -- on 10 hits and two walks in just 3 1/3 innings. He struck out four.

"It was just one of those nights where you make a mistake and they crush it, you make a good pitch and they're finding holes," Buehrle said.

In the sixth, Detroit jumped on reliever Shane Lindsay for eight hits and seven runs to push its lead to 16-0. Cabrera hit his 26th homer of the season during the rally, while Peralta, Brandon Inge and Dirks also knocked in runs.

Dirks belted his seventh homer of the season in the eighth, while Donny Lucy had an RBI double and Alex Rios hit a sacrifice fly in the ninth for Chicago.

Game Notes

How efficient was the Detroit offense? It went 11-for-24 with runners in scoring position for a .458 average...Buehrle, who was making his 27th start of the season, saw his earned run average climb .29 points to 3.34...Scherzer won 12 games last year.