Miguel Cabrera belted a walk-off solo homer after Ryan Raburn had tied it up with a two-run blast in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting the Detroit Tigers to a 9-8 victory over the visiting Chicago White Sox on Saturday.
Austin Jackson tripled twice among four hits and Delmon Young and Wilson Betemit each hit solo homers for the Tigers, who moved six games in front of the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central. The White Sox fell 7 1/2 games back.
Chicago looked as though it had the game in hand after pounding Brad Penny and building up an 8-1 lead. But Detroit chipped away, pushing across three runs in the fifth and single runs in the seventh and eighth.
The White Sox brought in closer Sergio Santos (3-4) for the ninth. Santos struck out Betemit leading off the frame but Jackson followed with a triple and Raburn sent his 12th homer out to deep left to knot it at 8-8. Cabrera wasted no time ending the game, following Raburn with his 25th homer on the first pitch from Santos.
David Pauley allowed one hit in three scoreless innings behind Penny and Luis Marte (1-0) tossed a hitless frame to earn his first major league win.
Chi. White Sox | Detroit | |
Gavin Floyd | Player | Brad Penny |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
5.0 | IP | 5.0 |
4 | Strikeouts | 2 |
8 | Hits | 10 |
7.20 | ERA | 7.20 |
Chi. White Sox | Detroit | |
Alex Rios | Player | Austin Jackson |
2 | Hits | 4 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 8 |
.500 | Avg | .800 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Chi. White Sox | 11 | 3 | 21 | .297 | 16 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Detroit | 15 | 4 | 33 | .375 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 |