method will be exposed, where the mettle of the middle order and the discipline of strike bowlers may not be enough. But those are challenges to relish. Opportunities to learn, grow strong

DETROIT -- The Tigers got a ton of offense Tuesday night -- and that wasnt even the most important part of their 11-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox.The most encouraging aspect of Detroits seventh straight win was Anibal Sanchezs performance.Sanchez (5-12) allowed one run in six innings to win for the first time as a starter since April 28 -- a span of 11 starts. He gave up six hits and three walks, and didnt yield a homer. He came into the game having served up 18 home runs in 94 2/3 innings.This might be the best Ive pitched all year, said Sanchez, who lost his rotation spot in June but got it back due to injuries. I felt really good with my command. Thats something that Ive been looking for all year long.Sanchez was expected to move back to the bullpen after Jordan Zimmermann returns to the mound Thursday, but the Tigers placed Mike Pelfrey on the disabled list following Tuesdays game with a lower-back strain. That means Sanchez will stay in the rotation for at least one more start.I was really impressed with the way he was able to pitch up in the zone again with his fastball, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. Thats what he was doing when he was successful.Miguel Cabrera hit his third home run in two games and Victor Martinez also went deep for Detroit. Andrew Romine and Cameron Maybin tripled in a six-run fifth.The Tigers have scored 39 runs in the last four games.Its really starting to be fun around here, Maybin said. Were tough on any starting pitcher, and it is beginning to show.Avisail Garcia, who entered in the fifth inning, homered twice and Todd Frazier hit his 30th for Chicago.You hate coming into a game because of an injury, but I wanted to take the chance I got, said Garcia, who began his career with the Tigers. It felt great to hit those two balls hard.James Shields (3-6) held the Tigers scoreless for the first four innings, then got hit hard in the fifth. He had allowed only five runs in his previous four starts combined, and manager Robin Ventura thought a six-day layoff might have been the problem.Hes been great, but you know that starters like to keep in that rhythm when they are going good, Ventura said. The way our rotation worked out, he had that extended rest, and he just didnt have it tonight.The White Sox broke a scoreless tie on Dioner Navarros RBI single in the fourth. Sanchez, though, retired Charlie Tilson with runners at the corners to end the inning.Chicago put its first two batters on in the fifth, but Sanchez picked off Tyler Saladino and worked out of the jam. The Tigers took advantage in the bottom of the inning.Romine, getting a rare start at third base in place of Nick Castellanos, led off with a triple and scored on Jose Iglesias sacrifice fly. Ian Kinsler singled and Maybin tripled into the left-field corner to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Cabreras double gave Detroit a two-run advantage, and Martinez followed with Detroits fourth extra-base hit of the inning, an RBI double.Justin Upton singled, and after Shields finally got the second out, James McCann made it 6-1 with a two-run single.Cabrera added a two-run homer in the sixth.Garcia hit a two-run shot off Shane Greene in the seventh, but Kinsler had a two-run single to make it 10-3.Frazier homered in the eighth to tie Baltimore slugger Mark Trumbo for the major league lead.After Martinez connected in the Tigers eighth, Garcia hit one estimated at 465 feet off Mark Lowe.Weve always known that Avi has the potential to hit balls like that, and it is great to see him start to do it, Ventura said. Hes a big kid, and hes finally putting it all together.TRAINERS ROOMWhite Sox: Tilson, playing his first major league game, had to be helped off the field in the fifth after straining his left hamstring while chasing Cabreras double. His leg buckled under him, and Adam Eaton had to field the ball in right-center while Tilson was lying on the field. Ventura said after the game that Tilson was undergoing tests, with results expected Wednesday.Tigers: Detroit got good news on all three of its injured players. LHP Daniel Norris (oblique) was activated from the disabled list and optioned to Triple-A Toledo, where he will prep as Detroits sixth starter. RF J.D. Martinez (elbow) will be activated for Wednesdays game and Zimmermann (neck) will start on Thursday.PERFECT AT THE PLATETilson singled in his first career at-bat, a grounder up the middle in the third inning. It was the second time in two games that a visiting player got his first hit at Comerica Park. Houstons Alex Bregman did it on Sunday. Both times, Cabrera presented the player with the ball at first base and offered a congratulatory pat on the back.UP NEXTThe teams play the second in a three-game series Wednesday night, with Chicago ace Chris Sale (14-4, 3.17 ERA) facing Detroit rookie Michael Fulmer (9-2, 2.50) in a matchup of two of the American Leagues best starters. The last time Sale was scheduled to face the Tigers, he was scratched and suspended after shredding throwback uniforms.Wholesale NCAA Jerseys . The CFLs leading rusher kept adding to his gaudy numbers this season and scored the winning touchdown with just over two minutes to play. The New Westminster, B.C., native plowed three yards into the end zone for the last score of a heated, see-saw battle between the two teams with the best records in the CFL. Cheap Football NCAA Jerseys . -- Stanford squashed Oregons national championship hopes again, schooling the Ducks in power football. https://www.chinajerseysncaa.us/ .Y. -- Syracuse has turned up the defence at the right time all season, and when High Point threatened to pull off a monumental upset the second-ranked Orange did what they do best with their quick hands and savvy play. Cheap NCAA Jerseys . On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. Howard scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 13 of 19 free throws in a 2 1/2-minute stretch, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 122-111. Cheap Basketball College Jerseys . Nathan MacKinnon, Jamie McGinn and Jan Hejda also scored for the Avalanche, who won despite being outshot 38-23. MacKinnons goal, also on the power play, came with just over a minute remaining.Two thousand and six. Thats when Pakistan were last ranked second in Test cricket. Back then, in the English summer, under the calm command of Bob Woolmer and Inzamam-ul Haq, Pakistan cricket was powered by skill and a degree of missionary zeal - blessed, you might say, by Bob and God.But the bank of blessings emptied soon after Pakistan got to England that year. Next, a forfeited Test, Woolmers death, terrorist attacks, and spot-fixing. An unprecedented four-year spell of curses. Four years with little blessing. By 2010, Pakistan cricket was more dead than alive. It would do well to exist.In 2015, Pakistan cricket does not merely exist. They are No. 2 in the Test rankings. Perhaps the greatest second place in the history of sport?Pakistan does not merely exist. It fights. It challenges. It wins. All of this is half-miracle. Winning makes us forget the impossibility of Pakistan at No. 2. How can it be? Above the Big Three sits Pakistan, at No. 2.Pakistan do not possess wealth or facilities. The best XI may not start. The XI, whoevers XI, once pulled in misaligned directions, without common purpose or grand design. A flawed genius of a cricket team. In time the flaws grew and the genius shrivelled. Nobody seemed to care. The country was a mess. In a rotten mess nobody cares for lost genius.But something wasnt rotten in the state of Pakistan cricket. That something was the cricket boards unbroken faith in Misbah-ul Haq. Misbah, inheritor of AH Kardar and Imran Khan. Misbah, an acquired taste, a sophisticated pleasure, a captain made for the deeper thought that Test cricket demands. Misbah created a team in his image: hard to beat, patient in adversity, capable of rapid transition from defence to attack. Misbah, Pakistan crickets greatest asset in this age of slings and arrows, its last hope.Misbahs leadership developed, his team acquired strengths. The batsmen now play with method, plan to build an innings. They defend James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and attack Englands spinners. Misbah leads from the front, other than to doff his cap to Younis Khans mastery. Asad Shafiq is the chief disciple, the next middle-order champion.The bowlers deliver uncanny accuracy. Yasir Shahs magic is exceptional control and subtle variations. He is patient and consistent, unusually so for a legspinner. He seems innocuous. No such thing. He is ever-probing, attacking, even without the elaborate variety of his predecessors.Wahab Riaz, early career blighted by loose deliveries, displays impressive control and stamina, enhancing the danger of his raw pace. Ancient skills, legspin and speed, bent to Misbahs will, and to the will of Waqar Younis and his coaching team.All this requires work and commitment. As does the progress of a wicketkeeper who scoops difficult chances, swallows straightforward ones, and offers quick runs in the lower order. Sarfraz Ahmed is fundamental to the success of a team known for its keepers generosity. Application, commitment, stout defence, and sudden aggression, all features of Misbahs Pakistan, embodied in his little wicketkeeper.None of this implies perfection. Pakistans troubles in the top order are clear enough. Azhar Ali is one long-term solution. The others are less certain. A series played with Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik in the top three is a gamble. Having no batsman after the little wicketkeeper, after No. 7, is a gamble.The ageing limbs of Zulfiqar Babar, a gamble. Misbahs Pakistan gambles on the mettle of its middle order. On the discipline of its strike bowlers. On the hands of its keeper. On a surprise attack in the thick of battle. On the chance that one or twoo of the support acts defy the odds.ddddddddddddOf the support acts, Malik will be gone in Test cricket. A double-hundred and vital wickets said farewell. Do these performances vindicate a wronged man? In Pakistans four-bowler model, Malik plays as a batsman. His feet entirely rooted, his bowling not entirely trusted. Even the final highs do not lead to vindication.Once, he promised much more. Once, a prince of Pakistan cricket. A true allrounder, adaptable to every format. A supreme fielder. A hero in preparation. A captain in waiting, then a captain ahead of his time. But a modified action and unmodifiable footwork put paid to any lofty ambitions. Never doing quite enough to master his flaws. Never quite convincing in front-line action after over a decade of effort. In that decade, the prince made better fortune of Sania Mirza, Princess of India, than in Test cricket.That same decade examined Hafeezs credentials. The prince and the professor joined at the hip. Offspinners with suspect actions. Batsmen with leaden footwork. Middle-order talents forced to front an innings. Minds playing a game beyond their abilities. The prince and the professor, seeking greatness, seeking a role, uncertain of their futures. Of the two, the professor succeeded, mastered his limitations, found a game to suit his talents. More determination on the front foot, less abandon outside off stump. A grit and sporadic aggression to please his captain. A method that still comes unstuck against the quickest bowlers, and will be vulnerable in England. A method, nonetheless.But as Maliks Test career finds a bittersweet ending, a last hurrah of life before death, Hafeez is surging, more formidable than ever, a surprising winner in their struggle, a painstaking professor victorious over a purring prince.Back in the day, your money was on the prince, not the bits and pieces of coursework that the professor assembled. That the professor flourishes and the prince fades is entirely consistent with Misbahs rule. Method over magnificence. Discipline over dash. Reaching No. 2 requires method and discipline.Staying there demands success overseas. At their best, Pakistan dominated England home and away, which is the next series, a forlorn eight months away. Thank you, ICC. Thank you, Big Three. Thanks for nothing. The measure of this team will be in England and West Indies. In Australia and South Africa. Yet those away series dont come round fast enough. India turns its back. How do we measure this Pakistan deprived of Test cricket?In truth, Misbahs Pakistan seem a little unready for those tussles, at venues where gambles will be busted, where the support act will struggle, where the Professors method will be exposed, where the mettle of the middle order and the discipline of strike bowlers may not be enough. But those are challenges to relish. Opportunities to learn, grow stronger. Tours that must be granted, tours being denied.For now, we celebrate the virtues of this Pakistan team, at No. 2 in the world, blessed by the dead hand and the lively mind of Misbah-ul Haq, cursed by the ICC, denied the chance to challenge for No. 1, denied the chance to assert the superiority of old virtues over new money.In 2006, the last Pakistan team to be second, the team of Bob and God, played a pragmatic, sometimes ill-disciplined, but ultimately soulless song. The team of Misbah and Waqar is equally pragmatic, more disciplined, and yet pleases the soul with the simple joy it finds in runs, wickets, and victories. ' ' '