From Jake Peavy's first two strikeouts to Brent Morel moving to second base on a short wild pitch in the eighth inning, the White Sox reinforced Friday that they're utilizing a relentless style — especially against the defending American League Central champions.
"That's going to be indicative of the game we have to play," Peavy said after stifling Detroit for 62/3 innings and receiving an array of support en route to a 5-2 victory — the Sox's third consecutive triumph — before a home-opening crowd of 38,676 at U.S. Cellular Field.
"It's going to be a team effort and that has been the theme Robin (Ventura) and Mark Parent and Joe McEwing and Kenny (Williams) have tried to instill this spring. Let's join together as a unit and make this happen. At least at the end of the day we can walk away knowing we gave them everything we had. It's going to take that to beat that team."
Delmon Young's two-run homer in the seventh off Peavy merely reinforced the Sox's resiliency. Three batters later, Dayan Viciedo said he took the advice of center fielder Alejandro De Aza by moving a few steps closer to the left field line and proceeded to make a diving catch with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position to end the seventh.
In the eighth, with runners at first and third and formidable Miguel Cabrera at the plate facing Matt Thornton, shortstop Alexei Ramirez made a diving stop behind second and flipped the ball out of his glove to Gordon Beckham, who quickly threw to first to complete an inning-ending double play.
"A good day for the Cubans today," smiled Peavy, referring to Viciedo and Ramirez. "We are liking the Cubans on our side of town. These guys were awesome. The play from Alexei and the play from Dayan saved the game ultimately."
The Sox didn't let up after Viciedo's solo homer in the fifth and Paul Konerko's two-out RBI single in the sixth. A.J. Pierzynski followed Konerko with an extra-base hit down the right field line. Third base coach Joe McEwing waved the slow-footed Konerko home despite the fact Konerko is nursing a tender hamstring.
But Konerko narrowly beat the throw to give the Sox a 3-0 lead that loomed large after Young's homer.
"You're always supposed to run hard until they stop you at third but I'm usually getting the stop sign for sure," Konerko said. "But Joe Mac was wheeling me around and I was a little bit curious about that. I was wondering what the heck was going on."
In addition to his second sacrifice bunt in as many games and an RBI single in the seventh, Morel moved to second when Daniel Schlereth's wild pitch bounced a few feet away from catcher Alex Avila. That enabled him to score on another wild pitch, this one from Brayan Villarreal.