White Sox Break Five-Game Losing Streak, Beat Orioles 6-2

Paul Konerko homered twice and drove in four runs and Alex Rios added a home run of his own and the White Sox avoided a four-game sweep at the hands of the Orioles with a 6-2 win on Monday night.

The win also broke a five-game losing streak. Lefthander Mark Buehrle threw 6.2 solid innings, allowing eight hits but no runs.

The Sox bullpen got into trouble in the ninth inning; Chris Sale came on with a 6-0 lead, presumably safe, but gave up a two-run homer to Derrek Lee and then a single to Vladimir Guerrero and a walk to Luke Scott.

That brought the tying run to the on-deck circle and made it a save situation, so Ozzie Guillen called on Sergio Santos, who struck out Adam Jones to end it. The win brought the Sox out of a last-place tie with the idle Twins, who will be in town tonight to face the Sox at 7 p.m. CDT. Tonight’s game is on CSN Chicago.

White Sox Try To Avoid Four-Game Sweep By Orioles

The White Sox are off to their worst start in 10 years and tonight at the Cell, they will be trying to avoid something that hasn't happened in 16 years -- a four-game sweep in Chicago at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles.

Of course, the White Sox have been a pretty good team over that period and the Orioles haven't. This year, so far, the Orioles are treading water at 13-13 in a closely bunched AL East, while the Sox have been prevented from sinking to the bottom of the AL Central alone only by the Minnesota Twins, who are virtually tied with the Sox, 10 games behind the division-leading Indians.

If that sounds bad, it is. The Sox will send Mark Buehrle to the mound tonight; Buerhle doesn't seem at all like the guy who threw a perfect game less than two years ago. He'll face Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie. Here's the rest of the White Sox lineup for tonight:

1. Juan Pierre LF
2. Alexei Ramirez SS
3. Adam Dunn DH
4. Paul Konerko 1B
5. Carlos Quentin RF
6. A.J. Pierzynski C
7. Alex Rios CF
8. Mark Teahen 3B
9. Gordon Beckham 2B

It all gets under way on the South Side at 7:10 p.m. CDT; TV coverage tonight is on WCIU-Ch. 26.