Detroit Tigers Sweep Chicago White Sox, Reclaim Share of AL Central Lead

We’ve been here before, you know, but maybe this time it will be different for the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox 4-2 Sunday night, completing a three-game sweep of the Sox at Comerica Park to pull even with Chicago atop the American League Central with matching 72-61 records.

It’s worth pointing out that the last time the White Sox came to Detroit for a three-game series the Tigers swept that one, too, to leapfrog Chicago and take first place in the division.

That was July 20-22. The Tigers held or shared the division lead until July 25, when the White Sox passed them again.

Why? Because after the so-called “statement” series Detroit promptly went out and lost six of their next eight games to fall back into second place.

It hasn’t been quite as easy as many experts predicted it would be for the Tigers in 2012. Back in late March, Yahoo! Sports’ Big League Stew blog headlined its AL Central preview “Just how many games will the Tigers win this one by?”

ESPN’s preview last spring had expert picks from 52 of its reporters and analysts. The Tigers were picked to win the division by every single one of them.

So it’s not a surprise Detroit is in the mix for the division title. What is a surprise is how difficult it has been. After last night’s win, the Tigers have now led or shared the lead in the Central for just 37 days this season.

Both Chicago and Detroit have 29 games remaining. The Tigers host Cleveland for three, then embark on a 10-game road trip with three at the Angels, four in Chicago and three at Cleveland before finishing up the season with six games against the Minnesota Twins and seven against the Kansas City Royals. Chicago goes home for its next 10, with three each against the Twins and Royals before the Tigers come in for their final meetings of the regular-season. Then the Sox hit the road for three-game series at Minnesota, Kansas City and the Angels, come home for three against the Indians and four with the Tampa Bay Rays and finish with three at Cleveland.

Starting pitching was a big reason why the Tigers got the sweep this weekend. Doug Fister won on Friday, Max Scherzer on Saturday and Justin Verlander on Sunday by combining to allow three earned runs.

“The way Scherzer and Verlander pitched the last couple nights makes it tough on anybody,” White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski told Fox Sports Detroit. “You could throw the ’27 Yankees out there and they’re going to get them out.”

On Sunday night, Verlander surrendered a home run to Alejandro De Aza on the game’s second pitch, then settled in and didn’t allow another run. He worked eight innings, surrendering just four hits and walking two while fanning 11.

The previous night, Scherzer worked eight scoreless innings in Detroit’s 5-1 win, striking out nine and allowing just four hits and one walk to earn his team-leading 15^th win.

After Sunday’s start, Verlander—the reigning Cy Young and MVP in the American League—moved past Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners into the major-league lead with 204.1 innings pitched and jumped ahead of Scherzer for the major-league lead in strikeouts with 209. Scherzer has fanned 204 hitters in just 162.2 innings.

Verlander is also fifth in MLB with a 2.73 ERA. He won’t win 20 games again—he’s just 13-7 right now—but he’s been every bit the ace of the Tiger staff this year as he was in 2011.

It’s been much more of a struggle than they expected, but the Detroit Tigers are still in position to do some postseason damage in 2012.