White Sox Blast Past Tigers

Frank Thomas is a firm believer that home runs come in bunches. That was certainly true Friday night for the Chicago White Sox in general and Greg Norton in particular.

Norton homered twice for the second straight game and the White Sox hit six home runs in all to defeat the Detroit Tigers 9-1.

Norton, who hit two home runs in a 10-5 loss to the Tigers on Thursday, hit a solo shot in the sixth and added a leadoff homer in the eighth.

"They come in bunches. Look at Nortie," said Thomas. "He's been struggling for a long time and all of a sudden he's hit four in two nights."

Karim Garcia homered over the right-field roof for Detroit.

All 10 runs scored on homers. Thomas, Konerko and Norton homered in a five-run sixth inning.

"It's contagious," Thomas said. "It's the best we've hit the ball in a long time."

Norton had his fourth straight multi-hit game and has eight hits in his last 15 at-bats.

"I just got some good pitches to drive and put a decent swing on them," Norton said. "I try to take every at-bat as it comes and concentrate and drive the ball."

Almost lost in the White Sox power show was an excellent outing by Jaime Navarro (3-4), who had been 0-3 lifetime at Tiger Stadium. He gave up seven hits and one run in seven-plus innings.

"I only made one mistake," Navarro said. "Beside that I was throwing sinkers and sliders to everyone else and moved the ball around."

Justin Thompson (4-6) allowed seven runs and 10 hits, including four homers, in five-plus innings. He lost his fourth straight decision after four straight wins.

"I don't know if it was just a frustration thing," Detroit manager Larry Parrish said. "He did pretty good through five, then after that he went back in the next inning and it was like he lost it."

Thomas homered on a 3-0 pitch to start the sixh, his first home run since May 7. Konerko had a three-run shot that finished Thompson and Norton greeted reliever Bryce Florie with a home run.

Fordyce hit a solo homer in the third and Durham had a two-run shot in the fifth.

Garcia's homer was a high blast that cleared the right-field roof on the fly and landed on the roof of a lumber yard on the opposite side of the street. It was the 30th homer over the right-field roof since Tiger Stadium took on its present configuration in 1938.

"I got really excited after I saw it go over the roof and everything," Garcia said. "But it would've been better to have a win. I'd change that in a heartbeat."

Garcia's blast was the third roof-clearing homer Navarro has allowed in Detroit. Mickey Tettleton in 1991 and Chad Kreuter in 1994 also took him completely out of the park.

"That's not bad. That's good," Navarro said. "Now I go in the books."

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