White Sox 6, Orioles 2
The accolades continue to pile up for Mark Buehrle. Not bad for a guy who was drafted in the 38th round.
Paul Konerko homered twice and Buehrle pitched 6 2-3 scoreless innings for his 150th career victory to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 6-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Monday night.
Konerko hit a two-run home run and a solo shot for the White Sox, who ended a five-game skid with their fourth win in 19 games. Chicago also avoided a four-game sweep by Baltimore.
Juan Pierre had an RBI single along with a diving catch in the outfield and Alex Rios added a solo homer to help the White Sox end a seven-game home skid with their first win at U.S. Cellular Field since April 12.
Buehrle (2-3) scattered eight hits, walked four and struck out four to win for the first time since Opening Day.
The 32-year old left-hander, who was drafted by the White Sox in 1998, already has World Series ring, a perfect game and a no-hitter on his resume.
''I don't know if it is a good or bad thing. The one good is obviously I've been around the league long enough and it's bad because I'm getting older,'' Buehrle said. ''Everybody is joking around saying 10 1/2 to 11 years to get to 300, but I don't think that is going to happen. It's just a round number. I don't know if I'm downplaying it more than everybody else, everybody is congratulating me, Ozzie (Guillen) gave me a bottle of champagne. There are all round numbers, but it is 150 more than I ever dreamed of having.''
Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie (1-4) allowed four runs and five hits in seven innings. He struck out four and walked two, remaining winless since Opening Day.
''He was good. Gave up solo home runs and didn't have any margin of error. I'd like to see us get ahead there a little bit. It's frustrating, he had good stuff,'' Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.
White Sox reliever Chris Sale hit Nick Markakis in the ninth with two outs and gave up a two-run homer to Derrek Lee. Markakis left the game after getting hit on the hand. Sale was lifted for Sergio Santos after giving up a single to Vladimir Guerrero and a walk to Luke Scott. Santos struck out Adam Jones for his third save in as many opportunities.
''We had more hits than they did but we were unable to get a hit with a runner in scoring position. It's unfortunate, but sometimes that's how the game goes,'' Jones said. ''He (Buehrle) was able to get out of his own jams. His changeup. He kept the ball down. It's not like he had too many strikeouts, he just kept the ball down and let his defense work for him. The big part of the game was Pierres catch. If he doesn't catch that ball, that's two runs. It changes the game.''
Rios drew a leadoff walk in the third off Guthrie. He stole second with two outs and scored on Pierre's bloop single to center.
After allowing a leadoff double to Jones in the fourth, Buehrle caught Mark Reynolds looking and got Matt Wieters to ground out. With runners on first and third, Buehrle was helped by Pierre, who made a diving catch on the warning track to rob Brian Roberts of an extra-base bit and save two runs.
''Juan made a play in the outfield, that was big for us. The game was on the line,'' Guillen said. ''I turned to Joey (Cora) and I said the ball is finally starting to bounce our way.''
With two outs in the fourth, Konerko launched his seventh homer of the season to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead.
Adam Dunn walked to load the bases with one out in the sixth. Konerko followed with a fly ball to the warning track in left that Scott snagged with a sliding catch. Gordon Beckham tagged up at third to give the White Sox a 3-0 lead.
Rios got Guthrie in the seventh for his second homer of the season. In the eighth, Konerko hit a two-run homer off Josh Rupe to make it 6-0. It was Konerko's second multi-homer game of the season and 29th in his career.
''Hopefully this win can get the vibe a little bit better in here,'' Konerko said.
White Sox reliever Jesse Crain struck out three in 1 1-3 innings.
Notes: Baltimore SS J.J. Hardy, on the 15-day DL with a strained left oblique, took 30 swings, ran bases and reported no problems. ... The temperature at first pitch was 42 degrees.