(Sports Network) - The Chicago White Sox hope to build off a rare outburst of offense in their last outing in this afternoon's clash with the Detroit Tigers from U.S. Cellular Field.
The White Sox have had trouble consistently putting up runs all throughout this 2010 season, but that certainly wasn't the problem last night. Chicago belted three home runs and pounded out 16 hits in a 15-3 rout of the Tigers, the team's highest scoring output of the year.
Chicago twice racked up seven runs in an inning in avenging a 7-2 loss to Detroit in Tuesday's opener of this three-game series. Ramon Castro and Brent Lillibridge each had three-run homers on the night, with Castro finishing 2- for-4 with four RBI, while Omar Vizquel knocked in three runs as part of a 3- for-5 performance at the plate.
The White Sox also received solid pitching from Freddy Garcia (6-3) on Wednesday, with the veteran righty working seven innings and allowing three runs on seven hits to win for the sixth time in his last seven starts.
"We know about big-game Freddy. He got the nickname for a reason, he always competes up to the next level when he faces a good-hitting team," said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. "He always wants to be in the big ones. I think he likes to compete against the best."
Tigers starter Rick Porcello (4-6) wasn't nearly as sharp as his counterpart, with the sophomore hurler rocked for eight runs on eight hits -- including homers by Castro and Alexei Ramirez -- before exiting after 3 1/3 innings.
Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera hit his 18th homer of the season in the loss, the seventh in the Tigers' past 10 road games. Brennan Boesch also had a solo homer and ended 2-for-3 for Detroit.
Chicago has now won all three meetings between these American League Central rivals this season, as well as six of the past seven matchups in the series.
The White Sox turn to John Danks in hopes of continuing that success this afternoon. The young left-hander has generally been reliable over the course of the year, having compiled a respectable 3.60 earned run average in 11 starts, but enters today's test seeking to bounce back from back-to-back disappointing efforts.
Danks was reached for four runs and nine hits over 5 1/3 innings in a home loss to Cleveland last Friday, which actually was a noticeable improvement over his previous outing. Against Tampa Bay on May 29, the former first-round draft pick surrendered eight runs on eight hits and lasted a season-low four innings in Chicago's 8-5 setback to the Rays.
The 25-year-old has dropped five of his last six decisions after a 3-0 start to the season and will be attempting to get back on track versus a Detroit squad he's 2-3 all-time against with a 4.10 ERA in eight starts.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland will hand the ball to the unpredictable Max Scherzer for today's finale, with the talented right-hander set to make his third start since returning from a two-week stint in the minors. He was sensational in his May 30 comeback, racking up a career-best 14 strikeouts and yielding a mere two hits over 5 2/3 innings to defeat Oakland, but didn't come close to matching that performance in Friday's assignment at Kansas City. Scherzer fanned only three batters that night and gave up five runs and nine hits in five ineffective innings.
Scherzer has been more bad than good this season, his first with the Tigers since coming over from Arizona via trade during the winter. The 25-year-old is 2-5 with a undesirable 6.66 ERA in 10 starts, with opponents batting .316 against him. He had permitted five runs or more in four straight starts before being briefly optioned to Triple-A Toledo in mid-May.
This will be Scherzer's first-ever meeting with the White Sox.