Sean Burke hurled six quality innings and Miguel Vargas homered to help the Chicago White Sox earn a 3-1 victory over the visiting Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
Burke (10-7) allowed one run on five hits while striking out five and walking three for Chicago (79-76), which pulled within a half-game of the American League Central-leading Cleveland Guardians.
Sam Antonacci and Munetaka Murakami both drove in a run for the White Sox, who had dropped three of their last four games.
Grant Taylor delivered a four-out save for Chicago, his 10th overall this season.
Jackson Jobe (2-3) threw six innings of three-run, four-hit ball, striking out nine and walking one for Detroit (73-82), which remains barely alive in AL Central contention. The Tigers’ wild-card elimination magic number is down to one.
Kevin McGonigle drove in the lone run for Detroit, which lost its third game in four tries.
In the bottom of the first, Vargas walked and stole second before scoring the game’s first run on Murakami’s two-out single to left.
Detroit threatened in the fourth with singles from Hao-Yu Lee and Riley Greene, but Burke got Dillon Dingler to ground out to third, preserving the one-run lead.
The Tigers evened the score an inning later. Ben Malgeri was hit by a pitch, Brett Callahan singled and John Peck walked to load the bases with one out. McGonigle then tied the game with a sacrifice fly to left.
Burke fanned Lee to keep the score deadlocked.
In the bottom of the fifth, Braden Montgomery doubled and Brenton Doyle singled to place runners at the corners with one out. Antonacci then plated the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly.
The Tigers loaded the bases again in the sixth, but Burke struck out Callahan to escape the jam.
Vargas then doubled the margin on the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth as he connected on his 33rd homer of the season to make it 3-1.
Jacob Waguespack struck out three batters in two scoreless innings in relief for Detroit.
