Now the Tigers have a winning streak.
Yoenis Cespedes and J.D. Martinez homered in a three-run sixth inning and Alfredo Simon settled down nicely after a bad start to beat the Chicago White Sox 6-4 Sunday afternoon.
Simon allowed a three-run homer to Avisail Garcia in the first, but all three runs were ruled unearned because of an error earlier in the inning by Miguel Cabrera.
Chicago added a fourth run in the next inning when Tyler Collins dove for Adam Eaton's line drive and missed, resulting in an RBI triple, but that was all they got.
"It seemed like in the second half of the game, his splitter and his cutter were really working," Brad Ausmus said. "He's giving us quality starts almost every time. He had a little trouble with his command early, but once he found his release point, he really got going."
The early struggles put some pressure on the offense, and there were some bad moments. They grounded into two more double plays, leaving them on pace to challenge the major-league record, and lost another runner when Martinez started running on a one-out pop fly.
"No one is going to more critical on me for that than I am," he said after the game. "That's totally unacceptable on my part."
Martinez helped make up for his mistake in the key sixth inning. After one of the double plays left the Tigers with two outs and no one on, Cespedes homered to pull the Tigers within 4-3. Tyler Collins singled, and Martinez slammed a homer over the centerfield fence.
"I felt like I hit it on the barrel, but it was so windy that I wasn't sure what it was going to do," said Martinez, who finished with three RBI. "I was glad to see it go out."
Martinez came into the game hitting .191 with one RBI in his previous 12 games, including nine losses, but said he and his teammates had tried to avoid getting too down.
"We tried to keep things loose today, just like we've done for the last week," he said. "We're trying to have fun, even if we lose games, because we can't tighten up."
Martinez hadn't driven in multiple runs since May 22, and he's not the only key Tigers hitter to finally start showing signs of busting out of a slump. Ian Kinsler had two hits, giving him seven in the last four games after a 6-for-56 streak that lasted 15 games.
With Justin Verlander expected back next weekend, and the offense starting to show signs of its expected talent, things might be looking up. The only possible problem? Any momentum the Tigers built with two wins in Chicago will be broken up by off days on both Monday and Thursday.
But, as Jim Leyland always said, momentum in baseball is usually about your next starting pitcher. That would be Anibal Sanchez, who faces Jon Lester and the Cubs Tuesday night on FOX Sports Detroit.
