White Sox Cage Tigers

Magglio Ordonez and the Chicago White Sox beat up the Detroit Tigers without throwing a punch.

Ordonez homered and drove in four runs, coming within a single of the cycle, as Chicago beat Detroit 9-4 on Sunday.

There were no flareups following Saturday's two bench-clearing brawls, in which 11 people were ejected.

"We like to play the game the way it's supposed to be played," said Ordonez, who was 4-for-5. "We don't like to fight."

Chicago extended its winning streak to five game, while Detroit lost for the seventh straight time. The White Sox scored 14 runs Saturday and lead the American League in runs.

James Baldwin (3-0) won his first start since getting drilled in the chest by Greg Vaughn's comebacker April 12, and Chicago battered Dave Borkowski for eight runs in the first two innings.

Recalled before the game, Borkowski started in place of Brian Moehler, who underwent an emergency appendectomy Saturday.

Borkowski didn't last long, giving up eight runs on six hits over 1 2-3 innings as Chicago batted around in each of the first two innings.

"He didn't get ball down today at all," Tigers manager Phil Garner said. "If you don't get the pitches where you want, they are whacking. They're laying off balls an inch off the plate, you come on the plate and make good pitches and they foul them off and you get some to the plate and they whack thm somewhere."

Ray Durham tripled leading off the first and scored on a passed ball. Jose Valentin and Frank Thomas drew walks and Ordonez hit his third homer, a three-run shot to center, to make it 4-0.

Bob Higginson went 4-for-4 and hit his first two homers of the year for the Tigers. In the second, Higginson hit his first home run to pull Detroit within three at 4-1.

"Higgy had a beautiful day," Garner said.

But Garner was disappointed Chicago pulled away so quickly, not giving Detroit an early chance to strike back after yesterday's blowout.

"I wanted to see it today against the White Sox and then we get taken out of it real quick," Garner said.

Durham led off the second with a single and scored on Thomas' sacrifice fly. Ordonez hit an RBI double and Chicago then loaded the bases. Mark Johnson relieved Borkowski, and Norton greeted him with hit a two-run single to make it 8-1.

Baldwin allowed four runs all on solo homers on seven hits over 5 1-3 innings.

"I felt good, but I was anxious," Baldwin said. "It was the home opener for me."

"We just flat can't get a hit with somebody on the base," Garner said. "We just can't make contact."

Juan Gonzalez and Dean Palmer also homered for Detroit.

Notes