FanHouse Yovanni Gallardo

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Tigers got a couple of badly needed victories Friday against the team that had been chasing them. Lost amid the excitement of Mark Buehrle's perfect game on Thursday was the fact that it helped the White Sox pull into a virtual tie with the Tigers for the AL Central lead. The Tigers had been alone at the top since May 16.

The Tigers had lost five of their previous six. But just when it seemed the Sox were ready to reel them in, the Tigers swept a doubleheader from Chicago, winning 5-1 and 4-3. They won the second game thanks to an eighth-inning bases loaded walk, issued by Matt Thornton to Clete Thomas. Carlos Guillen also homered in his first day off the disabled list.

"It was a big day," manager Jim Leyland said. "A good day for us."

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Pirates are certainly glad that they aren't in the same division as their intrastate rivals, the Phillies. The Pirates visit Philadelphia's Citzens Bank Park for only one series this year, and it can't end soon enough, as far as they are concerned.

The Pirates took a 7-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth on Saturday, only to have the Phillies score five times to win the game, one on a Matt Stairs homer, three on a Ryan Howard homer and the winning run on Paul Bako's single.

Afterward, Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson blamed the ballpark more than Pittsburgh reliever Matt Capps.

"It's the park,'' Wilson said. "Honestly, it's the park. That's the way their offense is built. They're built to hit home runs. They're the only team with four 20-homer guys at the break. We're lucky to have four 20-homer guys in two years combined.

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That David Ortiz pulled within one homer of Yovanni Gallardo on the MLB leaderboard. Yes, Big Papi finally hit a home run. It took him 149 at-bats to get his first homer of the season, while 318 other players had hit at least one -- including two by Gallardo, a Brewers pitcher -- but Ortiz got on the board with a fifth-inning homer, helping the Sox to a victory over Toronto.

Ortiz had been slumping so badly that manager Terry Francona benched him for the whole series last weekend in Seattle. Ortiz joked after hitting the homer on Wednesday that he was so desperate he was "about to hit right-handed."

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