DETROIT — The starch got taken out of this one quickly.
After splitting a pair of tense, extra-inning games, the White Sox drained the drama with a five-run fifth inning and beat the Tigers, 11-5, Sunday to take the series and keep their slim playoff hopes flickering. They remain five games in the loss column behind Central Division-leading Cleveland.
Andrew Vaughn delivered the kill shot. He capped the five-run inning with his first career grand slam, driving a 1-2 slider from reliever Jason Foley 418 feet, clearing the visitor's bullpen in left field.
It was one of three tape-measure shots the White Sox drove out of Comerica Park. AJ Pollock hit a 421-foot blast to left-center in the second inning. And in the seventh, Eloy Jimenez destroyed a hanging changeup from reliever Garrett Hill, sending it 450 feet to left-center.
The ball caromed high off the left-center bricks near the flagpole and fell into the bushes.
Jimenez had a day. He produced three hits, walked, knocked in three runs and scored twice.
It was a 2-2 game entering the fifth and starter Drew Hutchison had just dispatched the White Sox on seven pitches in the fourth. But things unraveled quickly.
After one-out singles by Elvis Andrus and Yoan Moncada, Hutchison got Jose Abreu to line out to right field for the second out. But he locked in too much on right-handed hitting Jimenez and didn't bother to check on the runners.
They stole third and second without a throw.
Hutchison then walked Jimenez to load the bases and walked left-handed hitting Gavin Sheets to force in the go-ahead run.
He was at 81 pitches at that point and manager AJ Hinch summoned Foley. Foley, who allowed a two-run single in the seventh inning Saturday night, left a 1-2 slider up and over the heart of the plate to Vaughn.
Willi Castro had given the Tigers a short-lived 2-1 lead in the first inning, golfing a two-run home run off White Sox spot starter Vince Velasquez.
Javier Báez had two hits, including his 14th homer of the season, which came in the eighth inning off lefty Tanner Banks.
