CHICAGO -- A.J. Pierzynski figured he had the night off after working the first game of a doubleheader. Instead, he found himself behind the plate after an injury to Toby Hall and smack in the middle of one of the White Sox's biggest comebacks.
Pierzynski, who entered after Hall was hit by the backswing of Carlos Guillen's bat in the sixth, hit a crazy-hop single past Guillen in the eighth to drive in the go-ahead run as Chicago beat the Detroit Tigers 8-7 for a sweep of the day-night doubleheader.
"You have to be ready," Pierzynski. "You never want to see anybody go down like that, no matter what the situation is."
Chicago won the opener 5-3 behind Javier Vazquez and Paul Konerko, who hit a two-run homer.
"To win two games against that team is pretty tough the way they've been playing and with their lineup," Pierzynski said. "We played a pretty good first game and the second game it looked like we were out of it."
The White Sox trailed 7-1 in the night game before getting two runs in the sixth, then closed to 7-6 when Jim Thome hit a three-run homer off Chad Durbin in the seventh. Pierzynski had walked and was on base when Thome connected.
Rob Mackowiak opened the eighth with a bad-hop double past first baseman Sean Casey, moved to third on a grounder and scored the tying run on a single by Scott Podsednik, who came off the disabled list Tuesday.
Podsednik stole second, Juan Uribe walked off Zach Miner (1-2) and Pierzynski hit a liner that bounced right in front of Guillen. Had Guillen controlled the ball, he might have started a double play. The play was initially ruled an error, but changed by the official scorer to a hit about half an hour after the game.
"It took a funny hop on him," Pierzynski said. "It looked like he was trying to catch it in the air and coming to get it, it kind of took a hop and came up."
Matt Thornton (3-3), who got the final out of the top of the eighth, got the win. After Thornton gave up a leadoff single in the ninth to Casey, Bobby Jenks got the final three outs for his 28th save in 33 chances, his second of the day. Pinch-runner Brandon Inge stole second, but Mike Rabelo lined into a game-ending double play.
"I didn't have any problem with Inge getting doubled. That's a tough one. You've got to score," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.
Virgil Vasquez called up by Detroit from Triple-A, made his second major league start in the second game. He allowed two runs and four hits in five-plus innings, giving up homers to Rob Mackowiak and Tadahito Iguchi. He left with a 7-2 lead but the Detroit bullpen faltered.
"Obviously we should have won the game for him, but we didn't do it," Leyland said. `
Chicago starter Gavin Floyd, also called up from Triple-A to make his second start this season, was roughed up for seven runs -- five earned -- and 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Mike Hessman, who had 27 homers in the minors before being called up this week, hit a long solo shot in the second. Detroit added two more on Rabelo's double, a two-base error on Mackowiak for missing Curtis Granderson's fly ball to right and an RBI single by Gary Sheffield.
Placido Polanco had an RBI double in the fourth. Hessman added a sacrifice fly and Ryan Raburn's RBI single in the fifth finished Floyd.
Thome's homer was his 17th of the season and 489th of his career.
Notes
- Hall got a minor concussion after he was apparently struck in the neck and head area by the backswing of Guillen's bat. X-rays and a neurological exam were negative
- The opener was a makeup of an April 26 rainout.
