Davis outpitches imperfect Buehrle in Rays' rout

[April 22, 2010]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Rookie Wade Davis outpitched a very imperfect Mark Buehrle and Sean Rodriguez homered and drove in four runs Wednesday night, leading the Tampa Bay Rays to a 12-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Facing the Rays for the first time since his July 23 perfect game against them, Buehrle (2-2) allowed six runs on nine hits in 4 2-3 innings as the White Sox lost for the fifth time in six games to fall into last place in the AL Central.

Davis (1-1) gave up two hits and struck out six in six scoreless innings. The 24-year-old right-hander surrendered Juan Pierre's bunt single to start the game and walked three of the next five batters before settling down. He didn't walk anybody else and the only other hit he allowed was Pierre's line-drive single in the sixth.

Rodriguez, Evan Longoria and Jason Bartlett had three hits apiece for Tampa Bay, which has won eight of its last nine games.

Rodriguez, a spring-training sensation with a .460 average and six home runs, entered Wednesday batting .160 with no extra-base hits. Playing for only the second time in a week, he opened the third inning with a soft double down the right-field line and scored the game's first run on Bartlett's single.

The Rays broke it open with a four-run fourth that started with Longoria's first-pitch double. Buehrle got Carlos Pena to hit a catchable foul pop but the ball fell between first baseman Paul Konerko and second baseman Gordon Beckham; Pena eventually walked.

Run-scoring singles by B.J. Upton and Gabe Kapler sandwiched Pat Burrell's sacrifice fly, and Rodriguez made it 5-0 with an RBI single.

Pena's sacrifice fly in the fifth chased Buehrle, who had been 8-2 against the Rays in his career.

Chicago's bullpen went into the game with a best-in-baseball 1.64 ERA but gave up six runs in the sixth. Rodriguez hit a three-run homer off Tony Pena and Randy Williams issued two bases-loaded walks. When Scott Linebrink relieved and threw a strike on his first pitch, the small crowd that braved the 39-degree night let out a loud, sarcastic cheer.

NOTES: Buehrle struck out the side in the first inning and retired Pena on a liner to open the second -- making it 31 up and 31 down in his last two starts against Tampa Bay -- before Upton blooped a double to right. ... White Sox RHP Jake Peavy, who will take a 6.00 ERA into Thursday's start, said it might take him all season to get adjusted to the AL. "But getting adjusted has nothing to do with being successful," said the 2007 NL Cy Young winner, who was acquired from San Diego at last year's trading deadline and then pitched only three times because of injuries. ... Tampa Bay's Ben Zobrist didn't start for the first time this season. The outfielder-infielder is batting .115 since April 14. "He's been expanding his strike zone a little," manager Joe Maddon said. "I just want him to sit and watch a little bit." ... White Sox RF Carlos Quentin went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and is hitless in his last 20 at-bats.

[Associated Press]

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