Chicago White Sox starter Jake Peavy tipped his hat to the pitching of Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander on Friday.

Peavy tipped his hat to the hitting of Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Delmon Young in the Tigers’ three-run third inning.

He also tipped his hat to the diving catches by right fielder Brennan Boesch in the seventh inning and left fielder Quintin Berry for the final out in the ninth inning.

Peavy tossed around plenty of respect after Friday’s 4-2 loss. But what troubled him was two vital mistakes he made in a game where he understood there was little room for error.

Peavy’s first mishap occurred in the third inning with the White Sox leading 2-0. With a runner on base and two outs, Peavy allowed a fastball to get away from him and he grazed Berry’s jersey with it.

Peavy’s misplaced pitch gave the meat of the Tigers’ order a chance with runners on base, and they didn’t fail to capitalize. Cabrera hit a liner up the middle for one run. Fielder singled in another run. Young completed the rally with a double to score a third run.

Like that, the Tigers had gone ahead 3-2.

“Obviously, we’d love to have that pitch back, and it just nicked him,” Peavy said. “I hate that obviously happened.”

Peavy’s second mistake wasn’t as costly, but it led to another Tigers’ run. In the seventh inning with a runner on first and one out, Peavy balked and allowed Jhonny Peralta to take second base. The next batter grounded out to second base and Peralta moved to third. Austin Jackson followed with a single and drove in the fourth run.

“Guy balks in the seventh inning, and it leads to a run,” Peavy said. “You get beat 4-2. It’s just a tough night.”

The four runs were more than enough for Verlander. He had allowed more than four runs just once this season, and Saturday wouldn’t be the second time. After allowing a two-run homer in the third inning, Verlander shut the White Sox down the rest of the way. He allowed four hits and two runs in eight innings.

“He’s a special talent,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said afterward.

As much respect as the White Sox have for Verlander, they still believed Friday’s game and the division were winnable. The Tigers cut the White Sox’s AL Central advantage to half a game with Friday’s win.

“We know this is going to be a batter and grind,” Peavy said. “We’ve talked about that from the get-go. We’ve never ruled anybody out. Obviously, Detroit is playing good ball right now and making a little run. We believe we’re going to do that as well.

“We’re going to be in this thing here to the finish. We’re going to fight tooth and nail. We believe we can play with them. We showed that tonight. We played with them. The ball just bounced their way. It didn’t bounce ours. They made some shoestring catches. That game could have easily swung either way.”