White Sox Get Some Payback Against A’s

The Chicago White Sox wanted this one.

Frank Thomas homered and Mark Buehrle became the American League’s first five-game winner Friday as the White Sox won, 6-1, at Chicago to end a 10-game losing streak to the Oakland Athletics.

“They embarrassed us last weekend,” said Thomas, who was two for three. “We’re just happy to come back and win. We’ll be happy to try and sweep them this weekend, because they really kicked our butts last weekend.”

The White Sox went to Oakland last weekend playing well and were promptly outscored, 32-5. They’ve been nursing a bit of a grudge ever since.

Actually, they’ve been itching to beat the A’s since last year.

“It was big,” Buehrle said. “We don’t think they’re that good of a team to beat us 10 games in a row. We just went there and didn’t play good at all. Pitching, defense, offense, everything wasn’t there. So it was good to get everything back on a roll.”

Buehrle (5-2) rebounded from an awful start last weekend, when he gave up a career-high eight runs in 22/3 innings, the shortest outing of his career.

Though he threw 120 pitches Friday, he gave up only an RBI single and scattered six hits over 62/3 innings. He struck out five.

Texas 4, Cleveland 2--Carl Everett hit a two-run double off Danys Baez (3-3) at Cleveland as the Rangers extended their winning streak to six games with a victory over the staggering Indians.

Doug Davis (3-2) pitched into the sixth inning, and Steve Woodard, John Rocker and Rudy Seanez--all former Indians--preserved the lead until Hideki Irabu worked a hitless ninth for his seventh save.

The Indians have lost six in a row, 15 of 17 overall, and seven in a row at home for the first time since 1990 when they played at Municipal Stadium.

Baltimore 4, Kansas City 3--Mike Bordick scored the tiebreaking run on a passed ball in the eighth inning at Baltimore as the Orioles kept Royal interim Manager John Mizerock winless (0-4).

With the score tied 3-3, Bordick opened the eighth with a double off Cory Bailey (0-4) and moved to third on a sacrifice. With Jerry Hairston at the plate, Royal catcher Juan Brito let a pitch get past him, and Bordick scored standing up.

Boston 3, Tampa Bay 2--The Red Sox rallied for two runs in the ninth inning at St. Petersburg, Fla., going ahead on catcher Toby Hall’s wild pickoff throw to extend the Devil Rays’ losing streak to eight games.

Minnesota 8, Detroit 4--Brad Radke (3-2) survived a rocky first inning to win for the first time in four starts, and Doug Mientkiewicz homered and drove in four runs to lead the Twins at Minneapolis.