CHICAGO -- The Tigers perhaps got a glimpse of their future against the White Sox on Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Facing opposing starter Lucas Giolito, a major piece of Chicago's rebuild, the Tigers strung together an impressive second inning thanks to potential centerpieces of their own. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Grayson Greiner uncorked a two-run double, and Dawel Lugo followed with another to oust Giolito from the game and boost Detroit to an 8-3 win.
"We've faced [Giolito before], so we know what he's got, so it's a matter of getting your pitch to hit," Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire said. "When he gets on a roll, you end up chasing a lot of pitches. We actually had a better plan against him, because after you face him so many times, you gotta figure out what he's doing."
"They had some really good at-bats, and I just let the game speed up on me," Giolito said. "I just kind of let it speed up and you do that at this level, you're going to have the kind of inning that I had in the second."
Greiner, who has been up and down from the Minors a few times this season, has started to put things together at the plate over the past few weeks. A former third-round Draft pick in 2014, Greiner earned praise from Gardenhire last week in New York. He finished Tuesday night 2-for-4 with a career-high three RBIs.

With a run-scoring opportunity in front of him in the second inning, Greiner, normally an aggressive hitter, said he approached his at-bat with "a little bit" of a different mentality.
"Especially with bases loaded and no outs, you don't want to get yourself to hit a ground ball early," he said. "I'm not the fastest guy in the world, so they're probably gonna have to turn two. But I'm just looking for something I can hit in the air, and when I got to two strikes, I was looking for something to get the bat on the ball."
Lugo came over as the headliner in last summer's J.D. Martinez trade, and though he struggled at Triple-A Toledo this season, he's established himself in his first week in the big leagues. Since being called up on Aug. 30, Lugo, the No. 14 prospect in the organization according to MLB Pipeline, is 9-for-24 with two doubles, including his two hits against the White Sox.
Gardenhire said Lugo was slowed with an ankle injury during Spring Training, but he is now fully healthy and has started to put things together at the plate and on defense.
"He didn't move laterally very well," Gardenhire said. "The ball that he drove to center field, he killed that ball. That ball made a different sound off of his bat that we've even seen since he's been up here, and he's got quite a few hits. But he's moving well defensively, he's really worked hard on his defense.
"Maybe it's just being in the big leagues has got him fired up and everything. Hopefully he doesn't get too comfortable where he starts slacking off, but that ball that he drove to left-center field, he killed that ball, and that's the kind of stuff that we saw and hoped that we would see."

Francisco Liriano started for Detroit and pitched well, allowing three runs (two earned) in five innings. The White Sox managed to work up his pitch count to 89, but Liriano showed some of his veteran mettle by limiting most of the damage in a three-run fourth inning.
"Early, [Liriano] was pounding strike zone [on] strike one with the fastball," Gardenhire said. "In the fourth he got out of whack a little bit, curveballs in the dirt, changeups away, and he started getting behind in the count. But he regrouped and went back out in the fifth and did fine. We got him through five innings, which is huge for us and for him."

"I've been struggling the last couple months, but you just have to put that behind you," Liriano said. "Just come here and pitch every five days, give your team the chance to win the ball game, and that's what I tried to do tonight."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Victor's Eleven: While the run production in the big second inning came from the younger Tigers, the team's elder statesman got things going. Victor Martinez led off the frame against Giolito and worked an 11-pitch single, making Giolito throw more pitches against him than the right-hander did in the entire first inning. Giolito recorded only one out in the inning and faced seven hitters.

"He's been doing it all year for us, just having quality at-bat after quality at-bat," Gardenhire said. "He sets the tone for us when he has those at-bats. Guys pay attention."
"That was a pretty big at-bat. [Martinez] pulled a lot of pitches, worked," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "He's a professional hitter, been around a long time. He did what he needed to do to put himself in a position to get the outcome that he did at that point. But a couple of those guys gave them some pretty good at-bats."
SOUND SMART
Liriano earned his first victory since April 28 against the Orioles, snapping a 16-game winless streak.
HE SAID IT
"Every day's a challenge just trying to get better every day. Hitting's hard at any level of professional baseball, but up here it's the best of the best, so you've just got to prepare a little bit harder, work a little bit harder, and good things usually happen when you work hard." -- Greiner
UP NEXT
The Tigers wrap up their three-game series in Chicago at 8:10 p.m. ET Wednesday, when they'll send Jordan Zimmermann (6-6, 4.22 ERA) to the mound. Zimmermann is coming off a solid start during which he allowed just one run on three hits over six innings. In his start before that, however, he allowed five runs in six frames against the White Sox. Chicago will start rookie Michael Kopech (1-0, 0.82).