Tigers 2, White Sox 1: Losing to form

It's a familiar story: The White Sox pitched well enough to win, but only came away with the loss. You only need to change the name.

Tonight's victim pitcher? HECTOR SANTIAGO.

SANTIAGO pitched well, throwing SEVEN innings and allowing just SEVEN baserunners while striking out SEVEN. He gave up a pair of single runs in the FOURTH and FIFTH innings, and the run-scoring hits weren't punished. JOSE IGLESIAS inside-outted a soft single for one run, and AUSTIN JACKSON hit a homer to LEFT-CENTER that didn't look all that impressive off the bat.

Otherwise, SANTIAGO was in control, even pitching around a defensive miscue when Alexei Ramirez couldn't READ A CRAZY SPINNER in his last inning of work. It wasn't ruled an error.

Despite the fine effort, SANTIAGO had already allowed too much damage, because the White Sox offense couldn't put together anything about DOUG FISTER.

Once again, an opposing starter stood a chance of throwing a complete game with fewer than 100 pitches. FISTER had thrown 88 over his EIGHT innings. He didn't walk anybody, the double play was his friend, as the White Sox grounded into THREE twin killings.

Even when they White Sox scored, it wasn't pretty. They did manage to score one run in the SIXTH when RAMIREZ DOUBLED TO LEFT and scored on a single by ALEX RIOS, but the inning ended seconds after, as Rios ran into an out ASSUMING THE THROW WOULDN'T BE CUT OFF.

That accounted for the only run, although they did make it interesting in the ninth. RIOS stood on second with two outs after a WALK AND CLOSE-CALL STOLEN BASE, but ADAM DUNN hit a harmless grounder to end it.

The White Sox have lost EIGHT in a row.

Record: 40-67 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights