Tigers 5, White Sox 4: Bad news keeps coming

Prior to the game, the White Sox made the surprising, confusing, depressing decision to take Chris Sale out of the rotation and name him closer, even with elbow tightness or whatever it was.

So maybe Matt Thornton attempted to provide some clarity when he missed on an 0-2 fastball to Jhonny Peralta. A.J. Pierzynski set up inside, Thornton threw it outside, and Peralta took it the other way for a walk-off, two-run homer.

It spoiled a valiant effort by Jake Peavy. So did Robin Ventura, who came out to the mound with Peavy at 117 pitches, two outs and a runner on second in the eighth, with Miguel Cabrera at the plate ... and left Peavy in. Cabrera singled to center to make it a one-run game, setting up Peralta's heroics.

Peavy was outstanding otherwise, throwing strikes, mixing his pitches, and using the low-high approach effectively. Up until the Cabrera single, only Alex Avila really had his number. Avila doubled and scored in the second inning, then homered off Peavy in the fourth.

(Avila had Thornton's number, too -- he scored a broken-bat single off Thornton before Peralta went deep.)

Gordon Beckham answered Avila hit-for-hit. He tied the game in the third by ripping a double down the left-field line, and then gave the Sox the lead in the seventh with a two-run homer off Octavio Dotel. In between he worked over Drew Smyly for 10 pitches before dropping a bloop single to right-center. Beckham now has three multi-hit games in his last four, and should have been the lead story of this game.

Adam Dunn also came through in a situation that hadn't been kind to him. Alexei Ramirez led off the sixth with a slicing drive that eluded the reach of Austin Jackson, resulting in a leadoff triple. Dunn, who had struck out swinging in his first two at-bats, was able to get a bat on a 2-2 pitch and hit a solid sac fly to right.

Bullet points:

• The last time Peavy threw 122 pitches? May 17, 2009.
• Brent Morel robbed Peralta of a double with a leaping catch.

Record: 12-14 | Box score | Play-by-play