Vaughn, Lynn lead White Sox past Tigers 8-2 for 5th straight

DETROIT - Andrew Vaughn homered and made two key defensive plays in left field as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Detroit Tigers 8-2 on Friday night for their fifth straight victory.

Lance Lynn (8-3) allowed one run on four hits and five walks in six innings, striking out nine.

Chicago, which leads the AL Central, has won nine of 11 against Detroit this season — including five in a row.

Casey Mize (5-5) gave up two runs on four hits and a walk in three innings. Mize, pitching as an opener to limit his innings, struck out four.

The White Sox took a 2-0 lead with two outs in the first. Yasmani Grandal's single scored Tim Anderson, and Brian Goodwin followed with a triple into the left-center gap.

Jonathan Schoop nearly put the Tigers ahead in the fifth, but Vaughn made a leaping catch at the wall in left field to turn a possible three-run homer into a sacrifice fly. Vaughn also made a diving catch to rob Daz Cameron of extra bases in the sixth.

Chicago took advantage of a defensive mistake to make it 3-1 in the seventh. With one out and a runner on first, rookie Jake Burger lifted a routine fly to center, but Cameron appeared to lose it in the lights. The ball dropped for a double — Burger's first career hit — and Danny Mendick followed with a sacrifice fly.

Vaughn and Gavin Sheets homered in a five-run ninth as Chicago scored at least seven times for the fifth consecutive game.

LONG ROAD

Burger made his major league debut and grounded into a second-inning double play in his first at-bat. Chicago's first-round draft pick in 2017, he missed all of 2018 and 2019 with leg injuries and started 2020 playing semi-pro ball. This year, though, he was hitting .322 with 10 homers and 36 RBIs in 42 games with Triple-A Charlotte and was selected to the Futures Game before being called up on Friday.

TRAINER’S ROOM

White Sox: Grandal exited with tightness in his left calf. He will be evaluated Saturday. ... OF Adam Eaton (hamstring) was activated from the 10-day injured list. The team optioned C Yermin Mercedes and RHP Zach Burdi to Triple-A Charlotte.

Tigers: Reinstated RHP Erasmo Ramirez (pectoral) from the 10-day IL and optioned LHP Miguel Del Pozo to Triple-A Toledo.

UP NEXT

The teams continue their weekend series Saturday afternoon, with Tarik Skubal (4-7, 4.06 ERA) facing Chicago LHP Dallas Keuchel (6-2, 3.96).