White Sox 9, Rangers 5
Alex Rios drove in three runs and Chris Sale picked up his 12th win as visiting Chicago pulled away in a battle of division leaders.
Alejandro De Aza put the White Sox on top for good in the fourth inning, dropping a base hit into right field that plated Tyler Flowers and Gordon Beckham to give the White Sox a 5-4 lead. Rios, who had a sacrifice fly in the first inning and an RBI fielder’s choice in the seventh, doubled in a run during a three-run ninth inning that sealed it for Chicago.
Sale (12-3) got the victory despite a rough first inning that saw him allow four runs. He gave up just three hits over the rest of his 6 1/3 frames, finishing with six strikeouts. Reliever Matt Thornton came in with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the seventh, gave up one run but allowed Chicago to hold on to a slim 6-5 lead.
Alexei Ramirez capped the scoring with a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning.
Nelson Cruz gave the Rangers a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the first when he launched a three-run homer to right field against Sale. A two-run shot by Kevin Youkilis in the second brought the White Sox back to within one.
Texas starter Yu Darvish (11-7) gave up six runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked three.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The White Sox have won seven of their last nine games at Texas ... De Aza left the game with an apparent left wrist injury after colliding with Ramirez in the seventh inning ... The four runs allowed by Sale on Friday matched the total number of first-inning runs he had surrendered in his first 17 starts of the season ... Texas LF Josh Hamilton drove in a pair of runs on a sacrifice fly and a fielder’s choice, tying Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera for the major league lead in RBIs with 83.