Greg Smith’s pitches gave the Chicago White Sox plenty of trouble. The rookie’s move to first had them leaning the wrong way, too.

“I’ve been able to use it a lot, really. I don’t try to pick a guy off. If he gets picked off, fantastic,” Smith said Monday night after earning his first major league win by pitching the Oakland Athletics to a 2-1 victory.

“When I was with the Diamondbacks, they were really big on shutting down the running game,” said the left-hander, who came to Oakland in the deal that sent Dan Haren to Arizona. “That’s what I’ve incorporated and every so often I’ll pick a guy off.”

Making his second big league appearance, Smith (1-0) gave up one run and six hits over seven innings on another cold night at U.S. Cellular Field, where the gametime temperature was 42 degrees. And he outpitched Mark Buehrle to get the win.

Smith was able to thwart former Athletic Nick Swisher’s third-inning steal attempt by making a quick throw to first and catching him leaving early. And in the seventh, he caught Jermaine Dye leaning at first after Dye started the inning with a single.

“It wouldn’t appear that was his second time out in a major league uniform on the mound like that,” Oakland manager Bob Geren said. “He does a nice job controlling the running game. We saw that a lot in Arizona. That’s part of his total game. He’s difficult to run on and he throws strikes. That’s a good combination.”

Kurt Suzuki went 4-for-4 for the A’s, who are 6-1 on their first road trip of the season. They improved to 9-5 overall for their best start through 14 games since opening 10-4 in 1992.

They closed out their latest win when Huston Street got through a shaky ninth to pick up his fourth save in five chances.

He allowed a one-out single to Dye and threw a wild pitch that allowed pinch-runner Brian Anderson to move to second. Street hit A.J. Pierzynski with a pitch before striking out Carlos Quentin and getting Joe Crede on a comebacker to end it.

Swisher, traded to the White Sox from the A’s in January, had two singles and a walk against Smith while playing against his former team for the first time.

After Swisher’s one-out single in the sixth, Orlando Cabrera followed with a single to left and Swisher dashed to third, just beating Emil Brown’s throw with a headfirst slide. Jim Thome’s RBI grounder cut Oakland’s lead to 2-1.

“It was fun seeing some of the guys,” Swisher said. “It was a little different to go out and play against them.”

Chicago entered the game with the highest-scoring offense in the AL and had put up 11 runs against Detroit on Sunday with bases-loaded homers by Paul Konerko and Crede.

“They’ve been swinging good. I saw the two grand slams yesterday,” Smith said.

Buehrle (1-1), who hadn’t pitched in eight days because of a rainout and a decision to give him an extra day of rest, gave up nine hits in seven innings while his career mark against Oakland dropped to 3-10.

The A’s bunched singles by Mike Sweeney, Brown and Suzuki in the fourth for their first run, ending a stretch of 22 straight scoreless innings by the White Sox that included back-to-back shutouts of Detroit on Saturday and Sunday

Sweeney doubled in the sixth and Brown followed with an RBI single for a 2-0 lead.

“Smith went out and pitched a great game. Somebody we’d never seen before,” Swisher said. “He had great command of his changeup. We had a couple of good chances to tie the game or maybe move ahead. It just didn’t happen. We’ve been playing good baseball. … Our sticks didn’t come around.”

Carlos Zambrano’s hustle—not his pitching or bat—paid off in a rare appearance off the bench.

Second baseman Chase Utley’s throwing error on Zambrano’s grounder allowed Ronny Cedeno to score the go-ahead run in the 10th inning and the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-5 Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep.

Jayson Werth and Eric Bruntlett hit solo homers for the Phillies. Mark DeRosa had a disputed solo shot for the Cubs.

Cedeno walked leading off the 10th against Rudy Seanez (0-1) and Geovany Soto walked after Ryan Theriot’s sacrifice. Zambrano, a career .215 hitter with 12 homers, was called on to pinch-hit because the Cubs were out of position players.

The left-handed hitting Zambrano bounced a grounder to shortstop Bruntlett that should’ve been an inning-ending double play. However, first baseman Ryan Howard couldn’t scoop Utley’s poor throw to first and Cedeno scored.

The Phillies have committed 15 errors, second only to Pittsburgh.

Utley, who has four of the errors, may have rushed his throw because Zambrano busted it down the line.

“Z put the ball in play and he hustled,” DeRosa said. “That shows the character of this team.”

Zambrano, an 18-game winner last year, took the loss in the series opener on Friday.

Kerry Wood (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings and Bob Howry finished for his first save.

Utley doubled with two outs in the 10th. After Howard was intentionally walked, So Taguchi grounded out to end it.

Playing without shortstop Jimmy Rollins and center fielder Shane Victorino, the defending NL East champions missed a chance to go above .500 for the first time this season.

Rollins wasn’t in the starting lineup for the fifth straight game because of a sprained left ankle, but the 2007 NL MVP could return Tuesday. Victorino was placed on the disabled list with a calf injury, forcing manager Charlie Manuel to juggle his lineup. Geoff Jenkins batted leadoff for the first time in his 11-year career and Werth started in center for Victorino.

Manuel earned his first ejection of the season for arguing DeRosa’s homer off Jamie Moyer in the sixth that gave Chicago a 4-2 lead. DeRosa hit a high drive down the left-field line leading off the inning.

Third-base umpire Adrian Johnson called it fair, though replays showed the ball was just foul. Left fielder Pat Burrell immediately trotted in to state his case and Manuel ran out to express his opinion.

After the umpires refused to overturn the call following a brief meeting, Manuel continued arguing and was tossed.

“I thought it was foul,” Manuel said. “I saw the replay.”

Cubs manager Lou Piniella had a different view.

“It looked fair to me,” he said.

Told by reporters the ball was foul, Piniella replied: “Really? You mean the umpires were wrong?”

Cubs starter Jason Marquis gave up two runs and four hits in five innings. Marquis turned a two-run lead over to Michael Wuertz, who didn’t retire a batter in the sixth.

Bruntlett hit his first homer leading off. Carlos Ruiz and Jenkins followed with singles. Werth then chased Wuertz with an RBI single that tied it at 4. Sean Marshall entered to face Utley, who drove in Jenkins with a sacrifice fly that put the Phillies ahead 5-4.

The Cubs tied it at 5 on pinch-hitter Soto’s checked-swing RBI single off J.C. Romero in the eighth. Tom Gordon started the inning but ran into trouble with one out.

Moyer allowed four runs and nine hits in five innings.

“I’m not quite where I want to be,” Moyer said. “I’m getting there slowly.”

Jenkins was 2-for-6 in his new spot atop the batting order. Jenkins was mostly a middle-of-the-lineup hitter his first 10 seasons with Milwaukee and has hit sixth or seventh with the Phillies. He batted higher than third just twice— both in 1999—in 1,246 games.

The Tigers have the worst record in the major leagues, and Detroit manager Jim Leyland couldn’t contain himself anymore.

Following Sunday’s 11-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox, Leyland was heard screaming in the clubhouse before reporters were allowed inside. He wouldn’t comment on the rant, but the manager said it wasn’t just about the loss.

“There was one thing that sticks out to me right now that’s going on, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Leyland said, without revealing the issue.

Joe Crede and Paul Konerko hit grand slams to back Javier Vazquez’s strong start. Konerko’s homer came in the third off Kenny Rogers and Crede’s grand slam, his second this season, came in the fifth against Zach Miner as the White Sox won for the fifth time in six games over Detroit, the preseason favorite to win the AL Central.

“We got Detroit at the right time,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “Those guys are going to wake up sooner or later. They have unbelievable talent.”

Chicago has a 5 1/2 -game lead in the division over the Tigers. The White Sox have outscored Detroit 46-12 this season, despite the Tigers adding slugging third baseman Miguel Cabrera to an already powerful lineup.

“Where we’re at makes sense because that’s the way we’ve played,” Leyland said. “It’s not surprising that we’re 2-10. We’ve been shut out four times. … I didn’t think we’d get shut out four times all year, to be honest with you.”

Detroit has been shutout out twice as many time as any other major league team—one more time than they were blanked all of last year.

“We’re just in a funk,” Leyland said. “Can I get them out of the funk? No, I don’t think so. They have to get themselves out of it.”

It was the third time the White Sox have hit two grand slams in one game. The previous time Chicago did it was May 19, 1996, when Darren Lewis and Robin Ventura homered at Detroit. The first time was Sept. 4, 1995, when Ventura hit two grand slams in a game at Texas.

“It was kind of wild,” Konerko said. “You don’t see many grand slams, and especially with the weather. The weather was kind of brutal out there.”

On a cold and windy day, Rogers (0-3) gave up seven runs, seven hits and four walks in four-plus innings. He once again pitched with no run support; the Tigers haven’t scored a run in his three starts this season. Not that he helped much.

“We’re not a very good team right now,” Rogers said. “We’re as bad a team as there is right now in every facet, myself as much as anyone. I’m supposed to be consistent and I was very uncomfortable out there and inconsistent.”

Chicago has started to erase the bad taste from last season with its strong start, and Crede is part of the reason why. The third baseman is hitting .341 with four homers and 15 RBIs, with most of his production coming in the last week. He had to work himself into shape in spring training after missing much of last season with back surgery.

“He’s Joe,” Guillen said. “We’re lucky enough to have Joe back. Last year we missed him a lot. We missed his bat and his glove. You see his RBIs, but he also had RBIs in the field, saving runs with his defense.”

Vazquez (2-1) won his second straight start, scattering five hits in seven innings while striking out nine without a walk.

Trailing 1-0 in the third, Rogers walked Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera reached on an infield single. Jim Thome walked and Konerko took an 0-1 fastball to center for a 405-foot homer, his first grand slam since Aug. 3, 2004, and the seventh of his career.

“It’s a credit to the guys in front of us that were getting on base,” Konerko said. “In my case, Orlando hustled down the line, drawing a bad throw to get on base and then Jimmy has a heck of an at-bat and draws a walk. It’s all those little things where it didn’t look like it was going anywhere and then, bang, grand slam.”

Rogers didn’t make it out of the fifth, getting pulled for Miner after Cabrera’s double and Thome’s bloop single. Konerko struck out, Jermaine Dye hit an RBI double and A.J. Pierzynski was intentionally walked. Thome scored on a wild pitch and Miner walked Carlos Quentin to set up Crede’s sixth grand slam, a 393-foot shot to left.

Crede had hit two grand slams in a season once before.

“High school, senior year,” he said of his days at Fatima High School in Westphalia, Mo. “I can’t recall a time since A-ball that I’ve started out feeling this good, this early.”

Not so for the Tigers. On Thome’s single in the fifth, Cabrera tripped on the third base umpire’s foot and missed a chance for an easy catch.

“That tells you how bad it’s been going for us,” Leyland said. “He stepped on the umpire’s foot and slipped.”

After needing the equivalent of three games merely to win twice in Pittsburgh, what a relief this regulation game was to the Chicago Cubs. Almost as big as the relief Jon Lieber gave them.

Geovany Soto and Mike Fontenot hit two-run homers in Chicago’s five-run sixth inning and the Cubs finished off a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh, winning 7-3 Thursday night to run their winning streak to five games.

Soto had three extra-base hits, including two doubles, among his second career four-hit game, and Derrek Lee also drove in two runs despite not getting a hit as the Cubs won their sixth in a row over the Pirates dating to last season.

Lieber (2-1) got the decision by pitching 4 1-3 scoreless relief innings after starter Rich Hill needed 72 pitches to get through three innings, allowing three runs and three hits and walking four. Lieber pitched 7 1-3 scoreless relief innings in the series, three of them during a 10-8, 12-inning win Monday in the Pirates’ home opener.

“Without Lieber, we really would have had problems,” manager Lou Piniella said. “We were looking for innings. … (Hill) was all over the place. There was no use keeping him in there. It wasn’t going to get any better.”

The Cubs certainly didn’t need to look for innings earlier in the series.

After going 12 and 15 innings to win the first two games—the first time in 81 years they’ve needed that many innings to win consecutive road games—the Cubs won this with one big inning against the pitching-thin Pirates, who dropped their fifth in six games.

“I’m glad it didn’t go (extra innings),” said Soto, who went 8-of-17 while catching all 36 innings in the series—apparently with no effect on his offense.

The Cubs withstood two Pirates homer-driven comebacks to win 6-4 in 15 innings on Wednesday night.

“I think any situation like that, if anybody can go in there and do that, it’s definitely huge,” Lieber, a converted starter, said of propping up the bullpen. “You want to give those guys a break down there, especially after last night’s ballgame.”

Soto had a chance to hit for the cycle, but he didn’t think of trying to stretch a double into a triple in the seventh. He grounded out in the ninth.

“I already hit my one (triple) for the year. I’ll take them if they come, but I don’t want to get greedy,” Soto said. “I’m not a triple-type guy.”

After emptying their bullpen in consecutive games, the Pirates needed a lot of innings from starter Matt Morris (0-1), who lasted seven but gave up 11 hits and seven runs, four earned.

“I tried to avoid thinking about that all day—the obvious thing is (to think), ‘I’ve got to go 8, I’ve got to go 9, I’ve got to go 7, whatever it is,’ and as soon as you start thinking like that, you can barely get out of the first,” Morris said.

Morris led 3-2 going into the sixth, but quickly fell behind when Kosuke Fukudome walked and Soto followed with a drive into the center field shrubbery for his second homer.

“I had the game in front of me but, all of a sudden, the home run just changed everything and it snowballed,” Morris said.

Morris might have gotten out of the inning with only two runs scoring, but Ryan Theriot, who had singled, was safe at third on a steal attempt when third baseman Jose Bautista dropped Ronny Paulino’s throw that arrived well ahead of the runner.

Theriot scored on Reed Johnson’s single, and Fontenot made it 7-3 with a two-run, two-out drive into the right field seats, the third homer off Morris in two starts.

Michigan has Notre Dame’s number on the football field. Not so the ice.

Calle Ridderwall punched the puck past freshman goalie Bryan Hogan 5:44 into overtime Thursday night, giving Notre Dame a 5-4 victory over the top-ranked Wolverines in the Frozen Four semifinals.

Ridderwall’s second goal of the night sent the Irish into a frenzied, pile-on celebration at center ice while the heavily favored Wolverines stood in stunned silence, dreams of their first championship in a decade dashed at the hands of the upstart Fighting Irish, of all teams.

Notre Dame (27-15-4) will face Boston College for the championship Saturday night at the Pepsi Center. The Eagles routed North Dakota 6-1 in the other semifinal to reach the title game for the third straight season.

The Fighting Irish are seeking their first national championship in hockey and the Eagles (24-11-8) are going for their third. They won in 1949 and 2001.

Notre Dame had never reached the Frozen Four before, while this was Michigan’s 23rd trip. The Irish jumped ahead 3-0 after one period only to watch the Wolverines storm back and force the first overtime at the Frozen Four since Minnesota beat Michigan 3-2 in the 2003 semifinals.

“There was no time I felt comfortable in that game,” said Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson, who led Lake Superior State to two national titles in the 1990s. “Even though we started off well … they’re just too explosive of a team.”

Before giving up the game-winner, Hogan had saved 18 of 19 shots after Billy Sauer, who was 30-4-3 this season with a 1.89 goals against average, got the hook from coach Red Berenson after the first period.

“He came in, he’s a freshman, he’s played what four or five games?” Chad Kolarik said. “He did a heck of a job. I just thanked him. He gave us seniors a chance. That’s all you can ask from your goalie.”

The Wolverines got back into it by scoring two goals 15 seconds apart midway through the second period. Kolarik scored from the slot against Jordan Pearce, and Matt Rust backhanded the puck past Pearce to make it 3-2.

Suddenly, the Wolverines looked everything like the team that’s been here so many times before and the Fighting Irish looked like the Frozen Four novices they are.

Kolarik tied it at 3 at 2:16 of the third period with a rebound goal after Aaron Palushaj hit the post on a power play.

The Irish regained the lead on Kevin Deeth’s goal at 11:30 on Notre Dame’s second shot of the third period, but the Wolverines tied it up again with 5:21 remaining on Carl Hagelin’s backhander.

Instead of having the momentum, however, the Wolverines were tentative in overtime and the Irish took the fight to them.

“We just said we have one overtime to get to play in a national championship game,” Fighting Irish center Mark Van Guilder said. “We realized that we just had to put the second and third period behind us and just move on.”

Both teams had several chances to score in overtime before Ridderwall slapped in the game-winner from the left side.

“I just took a quick shot,” Ridderwall said.

“I didn’t see it,” said Hogan.

Sauer, a Colorado Avalanche draft pick, also had a poor showing last year at the Pepsi Center, when he gave up seven goals on 26 shots during an 8-5 loss to North Dakota in the West Regional.

Just 5:42 into this game, Sauer surely was having flashbacks after giving up goals to Ridderwall and Van Guilder just 42 seconds apart.

“If we would have won, I probably wouldn’t have been too hard on myself,” said Sauer, who beat Notre Dame twice during the season. “But if it wouldn’t have been for my performance we would be playing on Saturday.”

He saved just six of the nine shots he faced Thursday night.

“He’s been our bread and butter goalie all year,” Berenson said. “I just didn’t like the way the game was going and Billy looked like he was fighting the puck. … We had to change the momentum in the game.”

Assisting on Michigan’s first goal was captain Kevin Porter, whose 33 goals and 30 assists this year have made him the favorite for the Hobey Baker award, hockey’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy, on Friday night.

The Irish, however, largely neutralized Porter, who never even took a shot.

This was the biggest game in the 115-game series between the rivals who first squared off in 1921, about the time the schools’ football teams were building their storied rivalry, one which has been lopsided of late—Michigan routed Notre Dame 38-0 last fall.

Ridderwald, the first Swede to play at Notre Dame, said few people back home know about the Fighting Irish when it comes to hockey.

“Uh, not really. I mean, a few people know about it,” he said.

That could change Saturday night, not just overseas but here in football country, too.

Prior to Wednesday’s game with the Twins, Ozzie Guillen was asked about umpire Phil Cuzzi and the fact that he’s been responsible for Guillen’s last two ejections. As usual, the White Sox manager pulled no punches.

“I don’t like that guy behind the plate,” Guillen said. “And I’m going to let him know. I don’t like him. He don’t like me, I don’t like him. It’s one reason is, if you don’t like me as a man and what I do, I respect that. But if you don’t like me, and all of a sudden you’re going to take it out on my players, you’re wrong. That’s unprofessional.

“And I just let him know I don’t like him the first day I see him, and I think he feels the same way about me. And we have to move on. Every time he’s behind the plate, we might have a problem. We might. We have. I think the last couple times behind the plate, we have a problem. And he tried to be smart with me, and I do what I have to do, and he does what he has to do. But I don’t like him, and he don’t like me. And I got a good sleep last night. I will spend all my money for him. I don’t care. But obviously, we don’t like each other.”

Back in the NBA, Kasib Powell gave the Miami Heat the type of effort they’ve lacked most of the season.

Powell scored a career-high 18 points, leading the Heat to a 95-88 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night that snapped a seven-game losing streak.

Ricky Davis and Chris Quinn each added 16 points as five players scored in double figures for the Heat, the day after coach Pat Riley was elected to the Hall of Fame.

“We got in such a habit of playing with talent only and thinking that talent was going to take care of the lack of effort,” Riley said. “These guys are just unadulterated. Effort is a big part of what our culture is.”

It was Powell’s first game back with the Heat after getting recalled from the NBA Development League and signing a contract for the remainder of the season. Powell was the MVP of the D-League.

“I didn’t know how much I was going to play today,” Powell said. “Any time I go out there, I want to be full of energy and bring a boost up.”

Powell also grabbed six rebounds and had three assists in 37 minutes as he returned to the Heat for the first time since scoring 15 points on March 31.

The Bulls fell to 30-47 and were officially eliminated from the Eastern Conference playoffs after making three consecutive appearances.

“We need to become a better defensive team,” Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich said. “The teams who usually compete for the NBA championship are almost always one of the best defensive teams in the league.”

There were high hopes for the Bulls this season after winning 49 games last season before falling to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“We’ve kind of lost our identity to what got us here,” Hinrich said. “We kind of lost our edge.”

Luol Deng led the Bulls with 25 points, 19 of which came in the first half. Ben Gordon and Joakim Noah each added 16 points.

Chicago was up by 11, its largest lead of the game, in the third quarter. But the Heat fought back to take a 60-59 lead, with back-to-back 3-pointers by Powell and Davis sparking a 12-0 run.

“We started the third quarter like we typically do, we weren’t ready,” Riley said. “We take a timeout and we just kept playing. We played extremely well.”

Miami took a 69-67 lead into the fourth quarter when Joel Anthony tipped in a miss by Quinn at the buzzer to end the third, drawing a smile from Quinn.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Quinn, who has scored in double figures six straight games. “Obviously, we haven’t had as many wins this year as we’d like, so any time you get out there and have success and winning, it’s a lot of fun.”

After Chris Duhon knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the Heat lead to 76-73, the Heat went on an 8-0 to put the game out of reach. The Bulls were just 6-of-20 in the fourth quarter.

“They wanted it more and played a lot harder as a team,” Gordon said. “A lot of their guys are playing just to stay in the NBA, so they definitely had a higher level of intensity than we showed.”

A jumper by Davis cut the Bulls’ lead to 36-35 late in the first half, but the Bulls responded with a 9-2 run led by Deng, who scored seven points, including a three-point play.

Aramis Ramirez’s sacrifice fly scored the go-ahead run during a two-run 12th inning in which the Cubs didn’t have a hit off rookie Evan Meek, and Chicago rallied after squandering the huge lead to win the Pittsburgh Pirates’ home opener 10-8 Monday.

Former starter Jon Lieber (1-1) gave a depleted bullpen a big lift with three scoreless innings before Carlos Marmol finished up in the 12th for his first save since June 27, helping the Cubs win their third in a row.

Joe Crede appeared to be the Chicago White Sox’s forgotten man, but now that he’s healthy, he’s sending out reminders—like that loud one he delivered on Monday.

Crede hit a tiebreaking grand slam to cap a five-run seventh inning, and Chicago won its home opener 7-4 over the Minnesota Twins.

Coming off a weekend sweep at Detroit, Chicago has won five straight for the first time since Aug. 10-14, 2006. The White Sox have won six of their last seven home openers.

Crede, batting .393 with 10 RBIs, endured a back injury last season and trade rumors in the offseason. Last year, limited to 47 games because of his bad back, he hit .216 with 22 RBIs. With Josh Fields also available to play third, Chicago explored trade opportunities for Crede during much of the offseason.

“The biggest thing coming into this season was staying healthy,” said Crede, who struggled in spring training. “For me that was my main goal in the spring, was to be able to get out there and feel comfortable at the plate, feel comfortable on defense and No. 1 to stay healthy.”

Nick Swisher homered on the second pitch of the game, and it only got worse for the Detroit Tigers.

Mark Buehrle pitched seven strong inning and the Chicago White Sox batters rocked Justin Verlander in a 13-2 rout of the Tigers on Sunday, Detroit’s sixth straight loss.

“This is very frustrating,” said Verlander, who gave up a career-high nine runs. “I think everyone on this team needs to do some soul searching.”

Despite the second-highest payroll in baseball, the Tigers are the only winless team in the majors and are off to their worst start since going 0-9 in 2003, when they lost an AL-record 119 games.

“I’m sure people are expecting me to rant and rave, but this team has too many professionals for me to have to do that,” manager Jim Leyland said. “They shouldn’t need to be told what they are doing wrong.”

All six of Detroit’s losses have come at home, in front of nearly 250,000 fans. Sunday night, one of the few cheers was a sarcastic ovation after Yorman Bazardo got the last out of Chicago’s four-run ninth.

“There’s no question that we are embarrassed,” Carlos Guillen said. “We can’t even win one game.”

Buehrle (1-0) rebounded from being tagged for seven runs on opening day, holding the Tigers to two runs and seven hits. He was helped by double plays in each of his last four innings.

“When I’m getting groundballs and breaking bats, I know that I’m in a groove,” he said. “I wanted to keep the team in the game until the bats took over.”

Chicago turned five double plays, all in the last six innings.

“I always say that defense wins games,” Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said. “That’s what happened today. Defense like that makes your pitcher look better.”

Verlander (0-1) didn’t get much help from his teammates. He allowed five unearned runs and saw several balls scoot through Detroit’s infield.

“I was making good pitches and getting groundballs, but they kept going to places where no one could get to them,” he said. “That’s what makes this so hard.”

Swisher hit the first leadoff homer of his career down the right-field line.

“Against a great pitcher like Verlander, I just wanted to go out there and mix things up,” he said. “I got a fastball down the middle, got good wood on it and it went out. I was really excited.”

The Tigers tied it on Ramon Santiago’s RBI double in the third, but Chicago went ahead 3-1 in the fifth on an RBI single by Joe Crede and a run-scoring groundout by Juan Uribe.

The White Sox put the game away with six runs in the sixth. With one out, Paul Konerko reached when Carlos Guillen dropped a throw at first, and Jermaine Dye followed with a double. After an intentional walk loaded the bases, Verlander hit Carlos Quentin,who had four RBIs, to force in a run.

Crede and Swisher added RBI singles, chasing Verlander. Orlando Cabrera then made it 9-1 with a three-run double off Aquilino Lopez.

“We made too many inexcusable mistakes tonight,” Leyland said. “I don’t mean errors—I don’t have a problem with errors. I mean plays that just cannot happen. We have to deal with that.”