White Sox Move Past Royals Into First Place

Mark Buehrle pitched a five-hitter for his second complete game this season and 11th of his career as the Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2, Friday night at Chicago and moved into first place in the Central Division.

The White Sox, who lead Kansas City by one-half game, improved to a major league-best 16-5 since the All-Star break.

“This is where we wanted to be and where everyone expected us to be,” White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel said. “We should be able to sustain this level of play.”

Buehrle (10-11) yielded two runs, struck out six and walked none in outdueling Mark Mulder (15-8), who failed to join Toronto’s Roy Halladay and Atlanta’s Russ Ortiz for the most wins in the majors.

Buehrle, whose previous complete game was June 26 at Minnesota, retired 17 of his last 19 batters.

Buehrle and Mulder worked quickly. The game took only 1 hour 53 minutes.

Mulder gave up three runs and 10 hits in eight innings in his major league-leading ninth complete game this season and 17th of his career.

*

New York 9, Seattle 7 -- Nick Johnson hit a grand slam and drove in five runs at Yankee Stadium to lead the Yankees in a matchup of the teams with the best records in the American League.

The East Division-leading Yankees won five of seven games with the West Division-leading Mariners this season.

Johnson’s homer in the sixth inning capped an inning in which the Yankees scored five unearned runs off Ryan Franklin (8-10).

Jeff Nelson pitched the eighth inning and faced the Mariners for the first time since being traded back to New York for Armando Benitez on Wednesday. He struck out the side.

*

Baltimore 10-4, Boston 4-2 -- Eric DuBose shut down the Red Sox in his second major league start to give the Orioles a sweep of the day-night doubleheader at Fenway Park.

The losses dropped the Red Sox four games behind the Yankees in the East.

After the Orioles ended Boston’s winning streak at four in the opener -- helped by a seven-run seventh inning -- DuBose (1-1) limited the Red Sox to one run in six innings.

*

Minnesota 4, Detroit 3 -- Johan Santana (6-3) gave up only two hits and one unearned run in eight innings at Detroit and the Twins beat the Tigers for the 18th time in 19 games. The Twins took a 3-0 lead in the third on Michael Restovich’s RBI triple, Cristian Guzman’s sacrifice fly and Doug Mientkiewicz’s RBI single.

*

Texas 5, Toronto 3 -- Hank Blalock, Mark Teixeira and Laynce Nix homered in the first inning off Corey Thurman (1-1) at Toronto to help send the Blue Jays to their 24th loss in 35 games. Thurman, who pitched six scoreless innings in his first start last Saturday against the Angels, yielded five runs and six hits in two-thirds of an inning.