The Chicago White Sox had a chance on Tuesday night to extend their lead in the A.L. Central to four games, but instead the Detroit Tigers cut Chicago's division lead back to two with a 5-3 victory at U.S. Cellular.
The White Sox jumped out to an early lead, but were unable to build on it. A DeWayne Wise homer in the first inning and a Gordon Beckham homer in the third inning gave Chicago a 2-0 lead, but the bats would more or less go quiet from there. The Tigers tied the game in the top of the fifth on a two-run homer by Austin Jackson, and took a one-run lead two batters later on a Miguel Cabrera solo homer.
In the top of the eighth, Alex Avila pushed Detroit's lead to 4-2 with a single off Francisco Liriano and Andy Dirks added another run on top of that with a single of his own. Alejandro De Aza brought the score to 5-3 with a single in the bottom of the eighth, but Jose Valverde would work a scoreless ninth for his 29th save of the year.
The two teams will get together again on Wednesday night, with Gavin Floyd facing Max Scherzer.
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