Tigers defeat White Sox in rain-shortened game

The White Sox picked up at home where they left off on the road: with another loss.

The Detroit Tigers defeated the Sox 2-1 Thursday night in a game that was called after a two hour, five minute rain deley at U.S. Cellular Field. It was the seventh defeat in eight games for the Sox (46-49), who returned home after a disastrous 1-5 road trip against the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners.

James Shields pitched six innings of two-run ball for his fifth straight quality start but suffered the loss as the Sox managed only one run against Tigers right-hander Mike Pelfrey (3-9), who won his first road game of the season. As a heavy rainstorm swept through the area, the tarp was put over the infield at 9:18 p.m. with the Tigers leading 2-1 in the middle of the seventh inning.

Shields allowed seven hits, including home runs by Ian Kinsler and Miguel Cabrera in the fifth inning that erased a 1-0 Sox lead. Shields struck out four and walked one. He has an ERA of 2.09 over his last five starts after a streak of four horrible starts.

“It’s tough any time a game is called by rain,’’ Ventura said. “He looked sharp. He seems over the hump. He’s back to being the guy we thought we were getting.’’

Adam Eaton, who was 3-for-3, doubled and Tim Anderson singled to right to score Eaton and give the Sox a 1-0 lead in the third.

The Sox are 14-20 against AL Central teams, including 2-5 against the Tigers (50-46).

“We’ve got to clean our stuff up in this clubhouse and start winning ballgames,” Shields said. “We still have a great team here and feel confident. Some of the games we played on this last road trip didn’t go our way and we wanted to start off the homestand well but unfortunately the rain gods got us a little bit. We’ve just got to keep grinding it out.”