Tigers 4, White Sox 0: Scherzer outduels Sale

Chris Sale vs. Max Scherzer lived up to the hype for a little while. Nobody reached base until Alejandro De Aza drew a walk in the bottom of the third. Nobody got a hit until Rajai Davis singled in the top of the fourth and Davis was promptly picked off. Nobody scored until the top of the fifth when Victor Martinez led off with a rocket into the White Sox bullpen and that would be the only run Scherzer would need as he mowed down the White Sox en route to his first ever complete game in his career.

The Sox had a mild threat in the fourth inning when Conor Gillaspie led off by reaching on an error by Miguel Cabrera. After two outs, Alexei Ramirez smashed a double putting runners at second and third for Dayan Viciedo, but the Tank flew out to right field to end the threat.

Sale left the game trailing 1-0 after seven innings and Jake Petricka couldn't hold it there.  Bryan Holiday and Eugenio Suarez led off the frame with singles. After a productive groundout by Davis pushed the runners to second and third, Ian Kinsler struck out brining up Miguel Cabrera. With first base open, I was expecting the Sox to put him on but they went after him and Petricka got him to hit a weak ground ball, but Gordon Beckham tried to barehand it and throw out Cabrera only to have it hit his hand and trickle away allowing both runners to score to make it a 3-0 Tigers. Petricka then got Martinez to ground out to second to end the inning.

The Tigers added one more in the ninth when Don Kelly singled off of Daniel Webb, stole second and scored on a Holiday single.

Sale struck out 10 over seven innings, but comes away with his first loss of the season (5-1), while Scherzer picked up the victory and is now 8-2.

* There were two ridiculous challenges that took about a combined seven minutes in the game even though the play was clear on the replay. Hawk remarked that the MLB office must have us on call-waiting.

* The Sox fall back below .500 as they sit at 33-34, 3.5 games behind Detroit.

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