2 hours, 4 minutes.
That's about how long it takes the Yankees and Red Sox to play an inning of baseball. (OK ... two innings of baseball). It's also how long it took the Tigers and White Sox to zip through nine, thanks to a great performance by Jeremy Bonderman on the mound for Detroit, and some rather stout pitching from the White Sox outside the middle innings.
Bonderman finished the day with eight strikeouts in eight innings, having allowed three hits and a walk. He allowed Omar Vizquel a homer for Chicago's only run. (Vizquel is 168 years old, FS Detroit's Ryan Fields reports).
At first it looked like Bonderman would need to pitch a good game. The lineup Jim Leyland trotted out looked like something out of a spring training game. No Miguel Cabrera. (He's day-to-day, by the way). No Johnny Damon. No Carlos Guillen or Magglio Ordonez, obviously, with their injuries knocking them both out the rest of the year. Ryan Raburn was No. 3. Brennan Boesch was batting cleanup. Casper Wells was No. 5. No offense intended to the players, but that's not exactly what you expect to see in a major league game. Not in the American League, anyway.
But it was the little lineup that could. Alex Avila and Brandon Inge both drove in two runs. Austin Jackson and Raburn got on base a couple of times apiece. Sox third baseman Mark Teahen assisted with a couple of errors. Hey, whatever it takes right?
So the Tigers beat the White Sox two games in a row. They're in a division hunt. Detroit isn't. I'd rather be rooting for the team on top, but if the Tigers can mess with Chicago that's fine by me!