No Raining on Buehrle’s Parade

The rain cost Mark Buehrle a shot at his first complete game of the season.

Buehrle pitched seven sharp innings to become the American League’s first six-game winner, and Kenny Lofton hit a two-run double as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Texas Rangers, 5-3, Wednesday night at Arlington, Texas.

Buehrle (6-2) gave up one run and four hits, striking out three and walking two before rain interrupted play in the top of the eighth for 61 minutes.

White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel went to reliever Bob Howry when play resumed because Buehrle’s arm stiffened during the delay.

“He had command of the strike zone,” Manuel said. “He hits his spots, studies the hitters, knows hitters’ weaknesses, and makes him hit his pitch. He had it rolling pretty good.”

After starting the season 4-0 with a 1.33 earned-run average in his first four starts, Buehrle went 1-2 with a 7.31 ERA over his last three starts.

“This is probably the best I’ve felt,” Buehrle said. “I had confidence in all my pitches. Maybe it was the best I’ve felt even all of last year.”

The Rangers had runners at first and second with one out in the fifth, but Buehrle got Rusty Greer to ground into a double play. Buehrle was perfect over his last two innings.

Magglio Ordonez and Tony Graffanino had two hits each for the White Sox.

Herbert Perry hit a two-run homer off Keith Foulke in the ninth, but Foulke struck out pinch-hitter Hank Blalock with a runner on to end it.

In Chicago’s three-run fifth, Ranger starter Doug Davis walked Jose Valentin and Sandy Alomar to start the inning, then bobbled Royce Clayton’s bunt and threw late to second for an error. That loaded the bases for Lofton’s two-run double, and Graffanino followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.

Manuel has a lot of confidence in Lofton at the top of the order.

“He’s a guy that every at-bat is a good one,” Manuel said. “And when they have to come in on him, he has a great chance at a good swing at it.”

Davis (3-3) gave up three runs and five hits in five-plus innings, his shortest outing of the season. He struck out two and walked three.

Boston 12, Oakland 6--The streaking Red Sox won their season-high eighth consecutive game while a streaker of another sort briefly delayed their victory over the Athletics at Oakland.

A naked man ran onto the field with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The fan streaked from the third-base seats to right field, where he was apprehended by a half-dozen security officers as players on both teams laughed.

Jason Varitek homered and drove in five runs and Nomar Garciaparra drove in four runs as the Red Sox improved to 16-2 on the road, the best such start in the majors since the Detroit Tigers began 17-0 in 1984.

The Red Sox finished with a season-high 19 hits.

John Burkett (3-0), off to his best start in 10 years, gave up three runs on four hits over six innings. He struck out five and walked two.

Boston’s Johnny Damon tripled in the seventh inning to extend his career-high hitting streak to 18 games, matching Chicago White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko for the longest such streak in the majors this season.

New York 7, Tampa Bay 2--Alfonso Soriano homered twice at St. Petersburg, Fla., as Roger Clemens and the Yankees extended the Devil Rays’ losing streak to 13 games--longest in the majors in more than five years.

Clemens (5-2) earned his 285th career victory, moving ahead of Ferguson Jenkins and into a tie for 24th place on the all-time list with Tony Mullane.

Tampa Bay’s losing streak is the longest in the majors since the Chicago Cubs dropped 14 in a row April 1-20, 1997. It’s the longest skid in the American League since the Milwaukee Brewers--no longer in the AL--dropped 14 in a row in 1994.

Minnesota 3, Kansas City 1--Brad Radke pitched a five-hitter at Minneapolis for the Twins’ first complete game of the season.

Radke (4-2) held the Royals hitless before Neifi Perez’s bloop single with one out in the fifth inning. He was one out from his seventh career shutout before Mike Sweeney doubled and Carlos Beltran hit an RBI single.

Jeremy Affeldt (1-1), making his second big league start, gave up one run and two hits in four innings.

Cleveland 6, Baltimore 2--Russell Branyan homered for the third consecutive game and Jim Thome hit a three-run shot to lead the Indians at Baltimore.

Danys Baez (4-3) gave up six hits in seven innings for the Indians, who lost five consecutive series before taking two of three against the Orioles.

Seattle 5, Toronto 4--John Olerud’s fielder’s choice in the bottom of the 10th inning scored Ichiro Suzuki with the winning run as the Mariners won at Seattle.

Vernon Wells’ sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning, scoring Raul Mondesi, had tied the game at 4-4.