Miguel Gonzalez faltered late. The White Sox still were more than happy with what he did Sunday.
Gonzalez took a perfect game into the seventh inning, Melky Cabrera, Matt Davidson and Todd Frazier homered, and the Sox beat the Tigers 7-3 to take three of four in the series.
Gonzalez went 7‰ innings, allowed three runs and six hits while striking out six and walking none. The win, which snapped his five-start losing streak, was his first since April 24 against the Kansas City Royals. Over that stretch, Gonzalez (4-5) had a 6.99 ERA in 28„ innings pitched.
That outing was good news for the Sox, whose bullpen needed a break after a doubleheader.
“A bunch of the guys came up to me and told me it was huge for you to go out there in the eighth inning and give the bullpen a rest, especially having that doubleheader and that late game before that,” Gonzalez said. “That’s huge.”
The game was halted before the top of the fourth by a 30-minute rain delay, though it didn’t stop Gonzalez’s momentum. He retired the first 18 batters before Andrew Romine reached first to start the seventh when Tim Anderson couldn’t corral a hard grounder. Alex Avila then singled to right, which at the time broke up the no-hitter, and then the shutout went away when Miguel Cabrera’s single drove in Romine.
Originally, Anderson was charged with an error on the Romine play but the ruling was changed to a single in the middle of the seventh. And Anderson would’ve had no problem taking the error if it meant a no-hitter for his teammate.
“I would have been like, ‘give me the [error], please,’ ” Anderson said.
David Robertson got the final two outs for his seventh save. Avisail Garcia (rest) didn’t play.
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