Sale slips again, but Sox rally to beat Tigers

For the past three seasons as a starting pitcher - and even as a reliever in 2010-11 - Chris Sale has typically picked up the White Sox at every turn.

Wednesday night against the Tigers, the rest of the Sox returned the favor.

"It's a great win," Sale said after the White Sox rallied to score 4 runs with two outs in the eighth inning and beat Detroit 7-6 at U.S. Cellular Field. "I just wish I was a part of it."

Sale struggled for the second straight start, allowing 5 runs on 7 hits in 5⅓ innings while matching his career high with 5 walks.

The ace starter has had injury issues the past three seasons, but command was his biggest problem against the Tigers.

"It's just a process," Sale said. "You're going to have good ones, you're going to have bad ones. You're going to have a few good ones in a row, you're going to have a few bad ones in a row. I think the most important thing is just staying true to yourself and grinding it out. It helps to have some great teammates."

Great teammates like Melky Cabrera, who picked a great time to hit his first home run in a Sox uniform.

After Micah Johnson and Adam Eaton singled off reliever Joba Chamberlain to extend the eighth inning, Cabrera followed with a 3-run shot to tie the game at 6-6.

"I am feeling good," Cabrera said. "I feel very good because I can hit the home run to tie the game in that situation. And because we can make up four runs in the inning and get the win, which is most important to us."

Jose Abreu and Adam LaRoche followed Cabrera with singles off Chamberlain - who stayed in the game for some reason - and Avisail Garcia came through with another single that scored Abreu from third base and decided the outcome.

"I mean, we needed that," Garcia said. "We needed to come back like that late in the game. If we keep doing that, we are going to be good for us. Let's see what happens and continue to play hard."

Garcia also was involved in a big defensive play in the ninth that helped preserve the win. With a runner on first base and one out, Tigers catcher James McCann singled to right field and Andrew Romine advanced to third base.

Garcia hit cutoff man Alexei Ramirez with a perfect throw, and Ramirez nailed McCann at first base for a big second out.

Closer David Robertson retired Jose Iglesias on a grounder to second and nailed down his fifth save in as many tries.

"Hitting the cutoff man, that's my job," Garcia said. "That's my job. I just have to hit the cutoff man every time that I can."

After going 0-5 ona brutal road trip to Baltimore and Minnesota last week, the White Sox have won two straight against Detroit and are doing a nice job of climbing out of an early hole.

"These guys just keep grinding," manager Robin Ventura said. "We keep talking about the offense eventually putting it together. It's been sputtering for a little while, not a whole lot of home runs and things like that, but they continue to grind and realize it's going to be there and it's going to come back.

"These guys continue to pull for each other and I think that's the strength of these guys, to be able to kind of grind through a tough week."