Price, Miggy pair up to end Tigers' skid
CHICAGO -- David Price received seven runs of support from a struggling Tigers offense, but only needed two as he pushed his team to a 7-1 victory over the White Sox before 28,368 on Saturday night at U.S. Cellular Field. The stellar effort from the one-time Cy Young winner helped the Tigers snap an eight-game losing streak.
Price fanned 11, walked two and allowed five hits in a complete game. His strikeouts reached record-challenging status at one point when he fanned seven straight starting with Geovany Soto to end the fourth and ending with Avisail Garcia to close the sixth.
"I don't add any extra pressure on myself," Price said. "How many games we lost in a row before today, it was a good day to end it."
John Danks matched Price through four innings, but a five-run fifth proved to be the veteran's undoing. Miguel Cabrera, who the White Sox had kept in the ballpark through the first seven matchups of 2015, went deep to score Ian Kinsler. James McCann, Josh Wilson and Jose Iglesias added run-scoring hits. McCann, Wilson and Iglesias, the bottom three hitters in the order, combined for 10 hits and four RBIs.
"I felt good, I felt like Geo and I were both doing a good job of navigating the lineup," said Danks, who threw 91 pitches in the outing following his shutout of Houston. "For whatever reason, the ball got up. They were able to put the bat on the ball and find some holes. Its just a lot of hits in one inning."
Alexei Ramirez and Adam LaRoche each had two hits for the White Sox, with Ramirez doubling home Emilio Bonifacio to give the team a 1-0 lead in the third. Over the last 10 games, the White Sox have alternated wins and losses for a 5-5 record.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Video: DET@CWS: Miggy puts Danks' offering into the green
Big bang theory: The Tigers have been longing for a big hit during their recent offensive slide and Cabrera provided it with a booming homer to straight away center field in the fifth inning. The two-run blast jump started things and the Tigers followed with five more hits and three more runs in the inning to bust out and chase Danks.
"When Miggy gets hot, it's pretty spectacular," said Tigers third baseman Josh Wilson. More >
Video: DET@CWS: Tigers score five runs in the 5th inning
Scoreless streak stops: Danks built off of the team's only complete game this season in his last start by throwing four straight scoreless innings on Saturday. That run came to an end in the fifth, when Danks gave up five runs on seven hits. He finished with 11 hits allowed over 4 2/3 innings.
Video: DET@CWS: Iglesias makes backhanded flip to start DP
Double your pleasure: The biggest key to the Tigers' victory was the five-run fifth, but a forgotten key play was a gorgeous double play in the first inning started by shortstop Jose Iglesias. With a runner on first and one out, White Sox slugger Jose Abreu hit a hard one-hopper up the middle. Iglesias scrambled and reached to his left to snag the ball, and then quickly turned to start the 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. If that ball gets through, there's no telling what happens the rest of the inning. At the very least, it saved Price quite a few pitches so he could go deeper.
"They played very good defense," said Ramirez through interpreter and White Sox Spanish language broadcaster Billy Russo. "We hit well, but they were in a good position to catch the ball. We did what we could against [Price] and those kinds of things happen in games."
QUOTABLE
"David takes pride every time he toes the rubber, but I think, my guess is, in his mind, he wanted to make sure the losing streak stopped. I can't say that with any proof. Just knowing the person." -- manager Brad Ausmus, on Price
"For us offensively, we just ran into a really good David Price," -- White Sox manager Robin Ventura, on Saturday's loss
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
The Tigers are now 17-4 when scoring five or more runs in a game and 12-24 when scoring four runs or less. The White Sox fell to 4-25 when scoring three runs or less.
WHAT'S NEXT
Tigers: Alfredo Simon (5-3, 2.97) pitches the finale of the brief three-game road trip for the Tigers with first pitch at 2:10 ET. Simon is coming off a loss against the Athletics where he allowed four runs on four hits and five walks in 6 1/3 innings on Tuesday.
White Sox: The three-game set with the Tigers comes to a close Sunday afternoon with a 1:10 p.m. CT first pitch at U.S. Cellular Field. Jeff Samardzija gets the start and look at his first-inning results to get a read on his performance for the day. The right-hander has allowed 14 earned runs on 23 hits in the first, the highest totals in baseball in both categories.
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