Tigers 8, White Sox 4

CHICAGO (AP) – Bobby Higginson homered twice and Wilfredo Ledezma pitched six effective innings, leading the Detroit Tigers over the Chicago White Sox 8-4 Thursday night.

Craig Monroe and Higginson hit consecutive solo shots in the second. Higginson’s three-run drive in the third capped Detroit’s five-run outburst and finished Jon Garland (8-9).

Ledezma (3-0) blanked the White Sox for the first five innings and had an 8-0 lead before Chicago scored three in the sixth, capped by Juan Uribe’s two-run homer.

Ledezma gave up seven hits and three runs with two walks and four strikeouts. Gary Knotts pitched three innings for his first career save, allowing only Ben Davis’ solo homer in the ninth.

Garland yielded six hits and seven runs – three earned – in 2 2-3 innings, his shortest outing of the season.

Chicago played for the third straight game without manager Ozzie Guillen, who got his second two-game suspension Thursday, this time for calling umpire Hunter Wendelstedt a liar.

Bench coach Harold Baines ran the team in place of Guillen.

Omar Infante and Carlos Guillen singled to start the third and the Tigers loaded the bases when first baseman Paul Konerko fielded Ivan Rodriguez’s grounder and threw high to second for an error.

Dmitri Young had an RBI grounder and Carlos Pena doubled to make it 4-0, though Young was thrown out at the plate. After Monroe walked, Higginson homered to right-center for his eighth of the season.

Marcus Thames’ sacrifice fly made it 8-0 in the fifth. The White Sox ended Ledezma’s shutout bid in the sixth when Carlos Lee singled, Konerko doubled and Carl Everett hit an RBI grounder before Uribe’s homer.

Notes: Higginson also homered twice Tuesday night, giving him half of his season home run total in two games against Chicago. He also had 10 RBIs in the series, which Detroit won two games to one. … The White Sox are 1-3 with Baines filling in for Guillen – three games for suspension and one when Guillen was at his son’s high school graduation.

AP-ES-08-19-04 2245EDT