"A few weeks ago, after his team had helped him to a no-hitter, Justin Verlander popped for an expensive and lavish dinner in Toronto.

Verlander would have been excused Saturday night in Chicago for ordering peanut butter and jelly. And sticking his buddies with the tab.

Until, that is, Miguel Cabrera arrived in the ninth inning with a man on third and two outs in a 2-2 ballgame.

Cabrera blasted a 374-foot, opposite-field home run into the Tigers bullpen to help the Tigers and Verlander beat the White Sox, 4-2, at U.S. Cellular Field, and tuck away a game Detroit's stumbling hitters had threatened to award to manager Ozzie Guillen's gang.

"That's a hard-fought win for us," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who knew how pivotal Saturday's game was for a Tigers team that could be fighting the White Sox for a home-stretch playoff bid. "That team's been hotter than hell."

To no one's surprise, including the White Sox, the scoring finished with a classic splash of Cabrera theater.

One pitch after he popped a foul fly to right that barely reached the seats, he took one of Jesse Crain's sliders and on a 1-2 count drove it over the right-field fence.

"I kept saying, 'Don't catch it, don't catch it,' " Cabrera recalled of his pop fly that just missed being snagged.

"Big win, especially after a tough loss last night," he said, speaking of Friday's 6-4 Tigers slip-up at U.S. Cellular and the pressure it placed on the Tigers - and Cabrera - Saturday night.

Verlander got his sixth victory of the season after handling the White Sox through eight innings, allowing seven hits and both White Sox runs. He struck out seven and walked one.

Jose Valverde allowed a leadoff walk in the ninth but got the next three batters for his 15th save.

The Tigers messed up on all kinds of invitations to break open Saturday night's event, a noisy affair that appeared to have as many Tigers fans as White Sox followers among a crowd of 31,037.

And they came within a pitch of blowing their ninth-inning chance.

Austin Jackson led off with a long triple against the left-center field fence, which left it up to Don Kelly or Brennan Boesch - his two-run homer in the first was responsible for Detroit's only runs entering the ninth - to punch home Jackson."