CHICAGO — Matt Vierling had an RBI double in the first inning and a tiebreaking RBI single in the seventh to help the Detroit Tigers to a 4-2 win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night.
Vierling's single off White Sox reliever Justin Anderson in the seventh scored Parker Meadows. One out later, Colt Keith drove in Riley Greene from second with a single to extend Detroit's lead to 4-2.
Tigers reliever Will Vest (3-4) got one out in the sixth and pitched a scoreless seventh to earn the victory.
Starter Chris Flexen and the White Sox matched the MLB record for consecutive losses by a team in games in which Flexen started, falling for the 19th time. The Brewers and Chris Capuano had a run of 19 losses from May 13, 2007, to June 3, 2010.
With a win in the opener of a four-game series against Chicago, Vierling did not put any extra emphasis on the need to take advantage of the struggling White Sox.
''I think that it's important to keep the same approach. I think if you think differently, that's when it goes bad, that's when you can get out of your game a little a bit. But we're just trying to play the same baseball we've been playing for a while, just be aggressive and put to together good at-bats, yeah, try to keep the same mentality,'' said Vierling.
The White Sox are 4-27 in the second half of the season and have the worst record in the MLB at 31-98.
Flexen is trying to avoid thinking about the current streak.