Mitglieder » The Detroit Tigers held a players’ meeting recently to talk a

DETROIT (AP) —bout the importance of competing down the stretch.“From the beginning of the season Jimmy Foxx Jersey , people have been counting us out. We’ve played pretty well this year, given the circumstances,” outfielder Mikie Mahtook said. “At the beginning of the season, if you said Miguel Cabrera would be out … season-ending injury, I don’t think people would think that we’d have this season. I think people all expected us to lose a hundred games.”Mahtook hit one of three Detroit home runs in the sixth inning, and the Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox 7-2 on Thursday. Even after the victory, Detroit is 22 games under .500, but after finishing tied for the worst record in baseball last season, the Tigers have avoided a total collapse in 2018.Matthew Boyd pitched six scoreless innings for Detroit, and Nicholas Castellanos, Mahtook and Ronny Rodriguez hit solo shots off James Shields (5-15) in the sixth.“You could see after we hit the first one, he got a little hot. He was a little mad,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He tried to throw it through a brick wall http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , and we got him a couple more times. That doesn’t happen very often.”It was the first career home run for Rodriguez, who also hit an RBI double two innings earlier.Boyd (8-11) allowed six hits, walked one and struck out six.Jose Rondon hit a two-run homer in the eighth for the White Sox, who fell to 3-10 this season against Detroit.Chicago manager Rick Renteria missed his fourth straight game since experiencing lightheadedness Monday in Minnesota. The White Sox said he was back in Chicago and would have further testing.Shields allowed seven runs and 10 hits in 6 2/3 innings. He is now 1-8 with 6.12 ERA on the road this year.Rodriguez opened the scoring with a run-scoring double in the fourth, and Grayson Greiner followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.In the sixth, Detroit hit three home runs in a span of four batters, with Mahtook and Rodriguez connecting for back-to-back drives that gave the Tigers a 5-0 advantage.“I thought I was good early, but then I started losing the ball up,” Shields said. “I was able to limit the damage for a while, but I got behind Castellanos, and I had to come in on him and he crushed it. Mahtook was a fastball up, but not far enough up, and the next one was just a hanging curve right down the middle.”Jim Adduci added a two-run double in the seventh.BIG PLAYDetroit center fielder Mike Gerber struck out three times and is now hitless in his last 30 at-bats Maikel Franco Jersey , but he made the game’s biggest defensive play in the fifth. Down 2-0, the White Sox had men on first and second with two outs when Ryan LaMarre singled to center.It looked like Yolmer Sanchez would score easily from second, but Tim Anderson tried to go from first to third and was thrown out by Gerber — before Sanchez made it to the plate.“Yolmer looked back, saw they were throwing to third and slowed down a little,” said White Sox bench coach Joe McEwing, who was managing in Renteria’s absence. “T.A. has to realize that the only play is at third, and with two out, he’s already in scoring position at second.”FIRST OUTINGChicago reliever Ryan Burr made his major league debut and struck out two in 1 1/3 innings.“It was everything I could have wanted it to be, and I’ve been imagining it for a long time,” Burr said.TRAINER’S ROOMWhite Sox: Chicago put C Welington Castillo on the 10-day disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. Castillo was suspended for 80 games on May 24 under the major league drug-testing program. He was eligible to return during this series and has been on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Charlotte.UP NEXTDetroit’s Michael Fulmer (3-9) returns from a left oblique strain Friday night for his first appearance since July 14. The White Sox send Reynaldo Lopez (4-9) to the mound.To make room for Fulmer on the active roster, the Tigers optioned RHP Zac Reininger to Triple-A Toledo after Thursday’s game. OAKLAND, Calif. — Veteran right-hander Edwin Jackson hopes to stall his career-long struggles against the Texas Rangers when he attempts to deliver the Oakland Athletics a second consecutive win in the three-game series Saturday afternoon.The A’s (85-57) will take the field 3 1/2 games behind first-place Houston (88-53) in the race for the American League West crown, and 3 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees (88-53) in the duel for the first wild-card spot in the AL.The Astros will be at Boston with the same starting time as the A’s http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , while the Yankees aren’t scheduled to start until several hours later in a night game at Seattle.Article continues below ...Jackson (5-3, 2.91 ERA) will be facing the Rangers for the third time this season while still looking for his first effective outing against them.He gave up a three-run home run to Robinson Chirinos in a 6-5 win over the Rangers in Texas in July. Jackson did not get the win, having been pulled after allowing five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings.Jackson’s stats were nearly identical (4 1/3 innings, four runs, seven hits) in a 4-2 home loss to the Rangers last month in which he was bombed for homers by Shin-Soo Choo and Joey Gallo. He took the loss in that outing.The 34-year-old has logged a 0-1 record and 9.35 ERA in his two starts against the Rangers this season, as opposed to 5-2 with a 2.06 against all other teams in 11 starts.Jackson is just 2-4 with a 4.85 ERA in nine starts against the Rangers in his career.Gallo has faced Jackson just four times and gotten on base all four via two walks, a single and a home run.The slugger ended a nine-game homerless drought with his 35th of the season in Friday’s 8-4 loss to the A’s in the series opener. He now stands five behind Oakland’s Khris Davis, the AL leader with 40.Adrian Beltre (.409), Choo (.364) and Elvis Andrus (.353) also have padded their batting averages at Jackson’s expense.Davis, meanwhile, has a walk, a single and a home run to show for three career plate appearances against left-hander Yohander Mendez (1-1, 5.59) Pete Rose Jersey , the Rangers’ scheduled starter Saturday.Mendez faced the A’s three times in relief the past two seasons, going 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA. He has not faced the A’s this season and has transitioned into a starter of late. Mendez is coming off the best outing of his career last Sunday, when he shut out the Minnesota Twins on three hits over six innings for his first major-league win.The A’s did a majority of the power hitting in Friday’s win, with Ramon Laureano belting a pair of homers, including one on Yovani Gallardo’s fourth pitch of the game.Oakland’s new leadoff man, who was an August call-up from the minors, has made the most of a recent promotion to the top of the order, going 4-for-10 in three games with two doubles and two home runs.