The Tigers (14-21) have lost four straight, six of seven, and nine of their last 12 games, falling close to the cellar of the AL East.
Tigers starter Joe Coleman was in trouble early and often as the White Sox had more traffic on the base paths than rush hour on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Coleman labored as he fell to 3-5
Coleman was wild, too: six walks thru the first five innings. Two of those walks scored, but more important, the walks forced the right-hander to work harder than normal as Coleman labored through the early innings, when the Chisox built a 3-0 lead using the walks and timely base hits.
The Tigers scored twice in the fourth. Willie Horton doubled, was driven home by Nate Colbert's double, and Aurelio Rodriguez plated Colbert with a single.
But that's as close as Detroit got. The White Sox scored in the fifth for a 4-2 lead (another Coleman walk started the rally), and even though the Tigers got to within 4-3 in the seventh, the White Sox didn't panic. They scored an insurance tally in the eighth.
Tigers manager Ralph Houk almost sounded like he was pleading for calm after the game, in light of his team's recent struggles.
"This is a long grind," Houk said. "The test is how you respond to these bad patches. It's not even Memorial Day yet. There's a lot of baseball to be played."
Still, Houk added, "We're just not swinging the bats. It's the same old thing. We haven't really gotten that going yet."
The Tigers now sit a season high seven games under .500. Houk's right: it's early. The way the Tigers are playing, is that good or bad?
Notes: Gates Brown made his 1975 debut, pinch-hitting for Gene Michael in the ninth. Brown missed the first 34 games with a sprained knee suffered in spring training. He grounded into a 3-6-3 double play and looked to be running gingerly...Reliever John Hiller's ERA rose to 5.59 after giving up a run in one inning of work...Horton's double was just his third of the season, though he has eight home runs.
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Tigers record: 14-21 (actual 16-19)
Home: 7-11
Away: 7-10
Last 10: 3-7
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