they made it here on their own merit. Theyre one just

CHICAGO -- The Chicago White Sox jumped ahead, and the Detroit Tigers came right back. Jose Abreu had a big two-run homer for the White Sox, and Victor Martinez responded with one of his own for the AL Central leaders. Adam Eaton loved every minute of it. Eaton had a key run-scoring single in the sixth inning, and the White Sox snapped a three-game losing streak with a 6-5 victory over the Tigers on Monday night. "South Siders, were grinders," said Eaton, acquired from Arizona in a three-team December trade. "Were going to try to do the little things right and grind games out. I think that was as close to a boxing match as you can get. "Grinding it out, and I wouldnt have a baseball game any other way. I think thats how its supposed to be played." Gordon Beckham had three hits and Conor Gillaspie drove in two runs as Chicago bounced back from a sluggish trip to Southern California. The White Sox took two of three from the Dodgers before getting swept in a weekend series against the Angels. Martinez, Miguel Cabrera and Eugenio Suarez connected for Detroit, which has dropped seven of nine. Cabrera went 2 for 4 while serving as the designated hitter after leaving Sunday nights 5-3 loss to Boston with left hamstring tightness. "I feel better than yesterday," Cabrera said. "In the last couple innings, it was tightening. But hopefully I can come back tomorrow in the field and get loose again." Martinezs two-run shot off Hector Noesi (2-4) trimmed Chicagos lead to 5-4 in the sixth. But the White Sox got a big run in the bottom half on Eatons single and held on to win the opener of a nine-game homestand. Ronald Belisario worked a shaky ninth for his sixth save. "We had so many people contribute in so many different ways," Gillaspie said. Alex Avila hit an RBI double off Belisario before the right-hander retired Suarez on a deep fly to centre. Pinch-runner Rajai Davis advanced to third on the play, but Belisario struck out Ian Kinsler and got pinch-hitter Torii Hunter to ground to third for the final out. Rick Porcello (8-4) struggled through five-plus innings for Detroit, allowing six runs and nine hits. He also committed a costly throwing error that set up Eatons run-scoring hit. "I just couldnt find any consistency in executing pitches," Porcello said. "I mean, we face these guys a lot. They know what youre going to do, and when youre not on point, on your game, theyre going to get all over it." Porcello was 9-1 with a 2.35 ERA in his previous 12 starts against the White Sox. The 25-year-old right-hander went 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA in three starts at U.S. Cellular Field last season. Noesi was charged with four runs and seven hits over 5 2-3 innings in his second straight win. The right-hander, claimed off waivers from Texas in April, pitched six solid innings against the Dodgers in his previous start. "Hes giving us a chance to win," manager Robin Ventura said. "He has been great. The changeup for him has really been a factor that has got him to this point." The White Sox scored three times in the fifth to take a 5-2 lead. Gillaspie drove in Beckham with his second RBI single and Abreu followed with a drive to centre for his 18th homer. Abreu had two hits after he went 1 for 12 in the sweep by the Angels. Cabrera watched for a brief moment as his one-out drive in the fourth sailed over the wall in left for his 12th homer. J.D. Martinez then singled with two down, but Gillaspie robbed Nick Castellanos of extra bases with a leaping grab at third for the final out. Suarez went deep in the fifth, tying it at 2. It was his second homer in his fourth major league game since he was promoted from Triple-A Toledo on Wednesday. NOTES: Victor Martinez has 15 homers and 15 strikeouts this season. ... White Sox GM Rick Hahn said the team has a "positive history" with agent Scott Boras and thinks they will be able to work together again when it comes to top draft pick Carlos Rodon. The White Sox grabbed the left-hander with the No. 3 overall selection Thursday night. The deadline for signing most amateur draft picks is July 18. ... Tigers RHP Justin Verlander (6-5, 4.19 ERA) faces LHP John Danks (4-5, 4.32) on Tuesday night. Soccer Jerseys From China .The other side of the Bruins special teams unit delivered in the end.Gregory Campbell netted the game-winner with less than 10 minutes remaining and the Bruins fended off a late four-minute San Jose power play to earn a wild 5-3 win over the Sharks. Soccer Jerseys .com) - Klay Thompson is quickly proving he is worth every penny of his recently signed four-year contract extension. https://www.cheapsoccerjerseysjustwholesale.com/ . "Its way better than running gassers, thats for sure," the inside linebacker said Monday, when the Chargers started their third and final week of organized team activities, which are practices in shorts, jerseys and helmets. Wholesale Soccer Jerseys . - Even with a new coach, the Denver Nuggets still love to push the basketball. Soccer Jerseys 2020 .com) - The Milwaukee Bucks will try to get another win on this homestand Thursday night when they welcome the Utah Jazz to the Bradley Center.NEW YORK - The basketball gods have spoken, with an assist from Jason Kidd. The Toronto Raptors will open their first playoff series in six years at home to the Brooklyn Nets at 12:30 PM et Saturday afternoon. The Raptors learned their fate early in the second half of Wednesdays season final - a 95-92 loss to the Knicks - when Chicago fell to Charlotte in overtime, assuring Toronto would finish with the third seed in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn had been red-hot, winning 33 of 46 games - the second best record in the East since Jan. 1 - until they dropped four of the last five contests, conceding a division title to the Raptors and ultimately falling to sixth place. Their last stand in Cleveland suggests that the late-season collapse, or at least the latter half of it, may not have been an accident. Kidds Nets squandered a couple of opportunities to lock up the fifth seed, setting up a likely matchup with the surging Bulls, on the final two nights of the campaign. On Wednesday evening, with four teams jockeying for playoff seeding, the Nets rookie head coach opted to sit all five of his starters, suiting up only seven players in a winnable game against the lowly Cavaliers. They would go on to lose by 29. "In my experience, youve got to be careful what you wish for," Dwane Casey cautioned ahead of Wednesdays finale. "You think you want to play a certain team then you start preparing for them and say, wow that teams pretty good. Then youve got a dogfight. I think the best way to approach it is let the basketball gods decide." Faced with a similar decision, Casey - who was an assistant in Dallas when he and Kidd won a championship together in 2011 - chose to play his stars against the Knicks and compete to win. Thats just one of the factors that separate these two teams, that creates a trace of animosity going into this weekends first-round matchup. Whether they care to admit to it or not, the Nets took their foot off the gas in the hope of maximizing the odds of facing an inexperienced Raptors team. Whether Torontos players or coaches care to admit it, thats a slap in the face, or at least it should be. Do they feel slighted? "No, man," Lowry responded, after the game. "They rested their players. Thats what they did." They shouldnt need added motivation, Casey wisely posted out. The Raptors have been underestimated and theyre about to be again. They will be lost in a sea of publicity surrounding the compelling storylines of a big market team with a payroll exceeding $100 million. "Weve played all season as the underdog, as the small guy trying to come up, whatever you want to call it," said DeMar DeRozan, who is one of three Raptors starters slated to make his postseason debut Saturday. "We always play with a chip on our shoulder and we understand going into the playoffs, we havent done nothing. We havent made it to the playoffs in six years. So weve got to go in there with a chip on our shoulder and understand its going to be a dog fight every single game, just like the season was." Their starting lineup goes into the series with 24 games of playoff experience to Brooklyns 399. The average age of the Nets first unit - complete with veterans and future hall of famers - is eight years older than Torontos. Its a clash of old and young, the battle-tested versus the unproven soldiers. "Experience is one thing but youve got to go play," said Casey, who is also venturing into uncharted waters, his first postseason as a head coach. "You have to go out and compete, its why they play the games. Our guys are going to be ready." "Theyve got a lot of older veterans that have been in the league 10-plus years so thats an advantage that we have," DeRozan said. "We understand that theyre experienced and everything but hey, who isnt? Once you come in this league youre going against players all season that are experienced in some way.dddddddddddd You just have to find a way to win." The Raptors and Nets split a four-game season series, with each team winning one on the road. Perhaps it was fate. In a redditt AMA chat last month, Terrence Ross identified the Nets as a preferred playoff matchup, to which Brooklyns Andray Blatche took issue and responded, "Ross asked for this, so theyve got to back up their words." These teams faced off in the 2007 playoffs - Toronto the third seed, the Nets, then in New Jersey, the sixth - after the Raptors won their first and only other division title. It was the first postseason experience for the likes of Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon and Anthony Parker, among others. That inexperience against a veteran Nets team - led by Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson - proved costly, as inexperience tends to be in the playoffs. This Raptors team believes theyre different, that they have something special. They may be right. As most observers - both devoted and casual alike - are aware and will continue to be force-fed ad nauseam ahead of their first postseason game since 2008, the Raptors rapid return to relevance in the East was unexpected. Generous prognosticators billed them as a conference wild card, a fringe playoff team, at best. Division winner? No chance. Not with a pair of entitled New York-area giants and their gargantuan payrolls occupying the Atlantic. Internally, expectations were being tempered, justifiably so. After years of false promises, the word "playoffs" was quickly dismissed in place of a new goal; "growth". They were indeed a wild card in the East. A newly structured front office, an expiring head coach and starting point guard, an $18 million experiment inherited from the previous regime. "We didnt go into the season thinking we were going to be division winners," Casey admitted. "That was our goal but we knew that was going to be a lofty goal. We always go in trying to swing for the fences. Once the trade happened, no one knew. The guys kept working, kept working, kept working and [it] kind of came together." The Raptors were 6-12 before that fabled evening in Los Angeles, the night Rudy Gay was shipped to Sacramento and the fortunes of a long-suffering franchise began to turn. From that point on they would finish the season with a record of 42-22, tops in the East. Some will shrug them off as the poster team of a historically weak Eastern Conference and at one point, early in the season, that may have been the case. However, they made it here on their own merit. Theyre one just four teams, in either conference, to finish in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Their 22 road wins, a franchise record, tied Miami and Washington for the best mark in the East and they finished with 16-14 against the superior Western Conference. Their individual and collective accomplishments seem countless. Their starting five has won more games than any other in team history, each player putting up career highs in minutes logged and scoring. On Monday they hung their second division championship banner and set a new franchise mark in wins. Six months ago that would have been more than enough. Now, its an appetizer. Theyve tasted success and they want more. No one is satisfied. "When I first got here that was one of my biggest goals, to get this team back to the playoffs," said Kyle Lowry. "Im happy to be there but Im not satisfied. I want to go out there, I want to make some noise and show that were really a good team." ' ' '