DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers were a loss away from falling back to .500 on Friday, but a J.D. Martinez home run in the bottom of the 8th lifted the them over the White Sox for a 5-4 win.
Anibal Sanchez was shaky against the White Sox, a team he's struggled against throughout his career. Chicago tallied just six hits over seven innings against Sanchez, but three of those hits were solo home runs.
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Sanchez has now allowed 18 home runs this season. He allowed just four in 126 innings last season.
But the offense scored single runs in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th Friday, thanks to 11 hits off of starter Jose Quintana and three more off of the Chicago bullpen.
Miguel Cabrera drove in a run in the 1st with a double to right center field. Cabrera finished the game with three doubles in four at-bats.
After the White Sox took a 2-1 lead on a Jose Abreu homer in the 3rd, Jose Iglesias tied the game with an RBI single in the 4th. The Tigers took their first lead in the 5th after Yoenis Cespedes tripled to the right-center field wall and scored Victor Martinez from 1st base.
Chicago regained the lead with runs in the 6th and 7th, but Rajai Davis tied it up once again with a solo shot to left in the bottom of the 7th.
J.D. Martinez's blast, which cleared the visitor's bullpen in left field, gave the Tigers the lead for good.
Joakim Soria came on for his first save opportunity since June 7 and served up a leadoff double to former Tiger Avisail Garcia. But Soria got a strikeout, a popup and a ground ball to strand Garcia, the tying run, at 3rd base.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Tigers. Bruce Rondon, who pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning, picked up his first win of the season.
Anibal Sanchez allowed four earned runs on six hits and two walks while striking out seven in seven innings. It's the sixth straight start that Sanchez has lasted at least seven innings.
The series will continue with a pair of day games over the weekend. Kyle Ryan will take the mound against John Danks in Game 3 on Saturday at 4:08 p.m.