Justin Verlander cruised to his 21st win and Austin Jackson homered among three hits as the Detroit Tigers handed the visiting Chicago White Sox a key loss in the American League Central with an 8-1 drubbing Friday.

Jhonny Peralta doubled in three runs and Delmon Young added an RBI triple for the Tigers, who maintained their 5 1/2-game lead over Cleveland and increased their advantage over the White Sox to 6 1/2 games.

Detroit jumped all over Chicago starter John Danks (6-10), pushing across three runs in the first inning on RBI hits from Young, Miguel Cabrera and Alex Avila.

The Tigers rallied again in the fifth with Jackson’s ninth homer and Peralta’s bases-clearing triple off righthander Josh Kinney.

Verlander (21-5) made it through the first seven innings scoreless before tiring in the eighth and yielding a solo homer to rookie Tyler Flowers. The Cy Young and MVP candidate ended up striking out six and issuing one walk in 7 1/3 innings.