Tigers 9, White Sox 3: Quentin's two homers not nearly enough

There was a pretty nasty wind blowing from left to right.

HOW NASTY WAS IT?

It was so nasty that Paul Konerko pulled a ball foul down the left field line ... and got a solo homer out of it when it sliced back and hit the foul pole.

Unfortunately, the Tigers benefited far more from the gusts, thanks to Mark Buehrle's inability to find the inside corner against right-handed hitters. When he tried to live on the outside corner in the third inning, Detroit dealt him a death blow.

Two straight changeups to righties Austin Jackson and White Sox nemesis Ryan Raburn ended up in the right field corner. They didn't seem particularly well-struck, but Jackson's went over Carlos Quentin's head, and Raburn's ended up over the fence for a two-run shot to make it a 4-0 game.

Those two runs were all on Buehrle. The first two can be pinned on Alex Rios, who couldn't catch up to a Johnny Peralta fly right of center. Not only was he unsuccessful on the dive, but the ball got past him and rolled all the way to the wall for an RBI "triple." A sac fly later, the Tigers had two gift runs.

By the Sox finally got to Justin Verlander, it was too late. All three runs came on solo shots - the aforementioned Konerko homer, and two from Carlos Quentin, who continued his run of excellent at-bats. Those two combined to go 4-for-8; the rest of the lineup went 2-for-25 off a typically tough Verlander. Adam Dunn had a particularly miserable go at it, wearing a collar and a silver sombrero. He's just late on fastballs.

With a cold rain blowing through Comerica Park, Ozzie Guillen opted to go with Tony Pena for the rest of the game instead of warming up other relievers. It neither started nor ended well - Pena allowed an inherited runner to score with two outs, and then gave up three runs in the bottom of the eighth to seal the deal.

Notes:

*Verlander recorded the 1,000th strikeout of his career, with A.J. Pierzynski serving as the victim. The K ended the inning, and Verlander stared him down on the way to the dugout. Not sure what that was about.

*Pierzynski threw out his first runner of the season. It was Magglio Ordonez at third on a strike-him-out-throw-him-out, and Ordonez was out by 20 feet.

Record: 8-12 | Box score | Play-by-play