White Sox Keep the Pressure on Tigers

Jon Garland pitched a six-hitter and Jermaine Dye hit two homers to lift the Chicago White Sox to a 10-0 win over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday. After losing the first two games of a four-game series, the World Series champions were pleased a split kept them in the division race.

“This was huge,” Garland said. “After losing the first two, we had to salvage these two. Now, we’ve still got a chance.”

Chicago trails Detroit by 5 1/2 games in the division and has a slim lead over Minnesota in the wild-card race.

“I don’t say that we’re in big trouble if we lose today, but now we can go back to Chicago and take care of our business,” Manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Detroit had a 10-game lead after play on Aug. 7, but the cushion has been cut almost in half because the Tigers have lost 11 of 16 games.

“We’ll find out if we’re good enough,” Tigers Manager Jim Leyland said.

Garland (15-4) struck out two and walked one in the fifth shutout of his career, his third against Detroit. His previous shutout was Sept. 4 last year against the Tigers.

“That’s as good a pitching game as we’ve had all year,” Guillen said. “He did everything that a pitcher is supposed to do out there.”

Nate Robertson (11-10) gave up a career-high 10 runs and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings. He has lost four of five starts, though his previous four were solid.

Chicago scored one run in the first and third innings before turning the game into a rout with three in the fourth, two in the fifth and three more in the seventh.