CHICAGO — All those errors added up to one ugly loss for the Detroit Tigers.
Jose Quintana allowed two runs over seven innings to earn his first win in more than a month, and the Chicago White Sox took advantage of Detroit’s shaky defense to beat the Tigers 6-2 on Sunday.
“It’s not always going to go smoothly for us,” starter Rick Porcello said. “We need to find a way to reach down and at the very least show some heart.”
The Tigers are in a race with Kansas City and Cleveland for the AL Central championship and they can’t afford letdowns like this.
They committed a season-high four errors and were particularly bad in the early going. That was the difference in the end.
For the White Sox, the win came after they traded Adam Dunn to Oakland, ending a disappointing four-year run in Chicago for the veteran slugger.
Adam Eaton doubled twice and scored two runs. Carlos Sanchez had two hits and also scored twice. Avisail Garcia singled, doubled and drove in two.
Jose Abreu extended his hitting streak to 12 games, and the White Sox won after dropping 10 of 12.
It didn’t hurt that the Tigers held Miguel Cabrera out of the lineup because of a sore right foot. He left the second game of Saturday’s day-night doubleheader and is day to day. But the biggest issue for Detroit was its defense, particularly in the early going.
“I don’t know if it was the worst (game), but it was certainly up there,” manager Brad Ausmus said.
The Tigers, who came into the game tied with Kansas City for the AL Central lead, committed three errors in the first two innings as the White Sox jumped out to a 5-0 lead, and that was enough for Quintana (7-10).
The left-hander gave up six hits in his first victory since winning at Detroit on July 29.
Rick Porcello (15-9) went 6 2-3 innings, allowing six runs — three earned — and 11 hits. But the biggest issue for Detroit was its defense.
The Tigers’ problems started when Eaton opened a two-run first with a double that bounced off left fielder J.D. Martinez’s glove. He came around on Conor Gillaspie’s two-out single, and Garcia scored when shortstop Eugenio Suarez dropped the ball trying to flip it to second after fielding a grounder by Dayan Viciedo.
Gillaspie was initially ruled out at second, but the call was overturned after a replay review, making it 2-0.
The White Sox took advantage of two more errors in a three-run second that broke open the game.
First baseman Don Kelly booted Sanchez’s grounder as Leury Garcia scored, and third baseman Nick Castellanos let Abreu’s grounder go under his glove as he tried to backhand it for an error. That brought in Eaton, and Avisail Garcia followed with an RBI single to make it 5-0.
It stayed that way until the sixth, when Detroit’s Ian Kinsler doubled in a run and Victor Martinez added an RBI single.
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