Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) – Carlos Quentin had two hits and drove in a pair of runs to back John Danks’ eight solid innings, as the Chicago White Sox rolled to a 7-2 win over downtrodden Pittsburgh in the middle meeting of a three-game interleague set.
Paul Konerko had three hits, while Alex Rios and Juan Pierre each had a pair of hits and scored twice for the visitors, who took advantage of six Pittsburgh errors to win for the sixth time in seven games.
Danks (6-5) yielded a pair of runs on four hits, while walking three and striking out six for Chicago, which has won 22 of its last 30 interleague matchups.
Zach Duke (3-8) took the loss after yielding five runs on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings. He walked one and fanned two as the Pirates continued to extend their season-high losing streak at 10 games.
Pittsburgh third baseman Pedro Alvarez went 0-for-2 with a walk and run scored in his major league debut.
Pierre led off the fourth with a single and scored when Alexei Ramirez followed with a triple into the right field corner to give the Sox a 1-0 lead. Rios followed with a base hit to left to deliver Ramirez and then scored two batters later on a base hit by Quentin that made it 3-0.
The Pirates manufactured run in the fifth when Alvarez walked, advanced to third on a Lastings Milledge double and scored on a Bobby Crosby groundout.
The visitors struck back in the next half inning when Rios doubled and came around to score on Konerko’s single into center field. Quentin followed with a double off the top of the wall in center to drive in Konerko.
Jose Tabata hit his first big league home run in the eighth to trim the Chicago lead to 5-2.
The White Sox added another run in the ninth when Jayson Nix doubled, moved to third on a Neil Walker fielding error and then scored when Pierre stole second base and catcher Ryan Doumit’s throw skipped away from Walker at second base. Pierre then swiped third base and came in to score when Alvarez could not make the grab on the throw from Doumit.
The Pirates called up Alvarez, the second pick in the 2008 MLB Draft, prior to the game…He received a standing ovation as he walked to the plate for his first major league at-bat during which he struck out…The Pirates designated infielder Akinori Iwamura for assignment to make room for Alvarez…Pierre is the active stolen base leader with 486, one behind former Pirates outfielder Omar Moreno, who is 39th place all-time with 487…Ramirez has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games…The White Sox are 16-9 against the Pirates, including 7-6 in Pittsburgh…Danks is 4-2 in 11 interleague turns…The Pirates have lost 16 of their last 19 games…Tabata has reached base in all six games he has played in since being called up to the big leagues…Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates went 1-for-3 to push his hitting streak to six games, while Garrett Jones was 1-for-4 and has hit safely in seven straight…Duke is 0-2 in his career against Chicago and 3-5 in 13 interleague starts…The Bucs have lost seven of their last eight games against the White Sox.