Contreras (3-3) gave up one run and six hits for the White Sox, who won for just the third time in 10 games.
Bobby Jenks allowed a solo home run to rookie Wladimir Balentien in the ninth but still got his seventh save in nine chances.
Seattle slugger Richie Sexson went 0-for-4 hours after Major League Baseball suspended him six games for charging the mound Thursday and throwing his helmet at Texas' Kason Gabbard. Sexson is appealing the suspension.
The Mariners, who entered the season as one of the favorites to reach the postseason, have lost nine of 10 and is already further out of first place (eight games) than any other team in the AL. They've scored just three runs in their last four games.
Chicago scored three runs in the third. After Carlos Silva (3-2) walked Jim Thome to load the bases, Konerko doubled and Jermaine Dye's sacrifice fly made it 3-0.
The Mariners ended their longest scoreless drought in 20 years in the bottom half, taking advantage of two White Sox miscues. Ichiro Suzuki singled, swiped second and went to third on errant throw by catcher A.J. Pierzynski. He scored on Contreras' wild pitch.
Thome hit his seventh homer in the seventh to extend Chicago's lead to 4-1, golfing Silva's full-count sinker a dozen rows into the right-field bleachers. Silva, who angrily ripped off his cap after Thome's drive, allowed eight hits and four runs in seven innings.
Notes:@ C Kenji Johjima, 0-for-7 against Contreras and batting .184, was the latest Mariner to get benched. "We've reached the stage where I'm going to use the best nine guys I can to win that game," manager John McLaren said. "He's disappointed
- we're disappointed."
